🔗 Share this article

This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been granted for transformative discoveries that illuminate how the body's defense network attacks dangerous pathogens while protecting the healthy tissues.

A trio of esteemed scientists—from Japan Prof. Sakaguchi and American scientists Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—received this honor.

Their work identified unique "sentinels" within the defense system that eliminate malfunctioning immune cells that could attacking the organism.

The findings are now paving the way for innovative treatments for immune disorders and malignancies.

The winners will share a prize fund worth 11 million SEK.

Decisive Findings

"The work has been essential for understanding how the immune system functions and why we don't all suffer from severe autoimmune diseases," commented the head of the award panel.

This trio's studies address a fundamental question: How does the defense system defend us from countless invaders while keeping our healthy cells intact?

The immune system employs white blood cells that scan for indicators of infection, including viruses and bacteria it has not met before.

These defenders employ sensors—known as receptors—that are produced by chance in countless combinations.

That gives the defense network the capacity to combat a broad range of invaders, but the unpredictability of the process inevitably creates white blood cells that may attack the body.

Protectors of the Body

Researchers previously knew that some of these harmful white blood cells were eliminated in the immune organ—the site where white blood cells develop.

This year's Nobel Prize honors the discovery of regulatory T-cells—known as the immune system's "peacekeepers"—which patrol the body to neutralize any defenders that attack the healthy cells.

It is known that this process fails in self-attack conditions such as juvenile diabetes, MS, and RA.

The Nobel panel stated, "These discoveries have established a novel area of research and accelerated the creation of innovative therapies, for instance for tumors and autoimmune diseases."

Regarding cancer, regulatory T-cells prevent the body from fighting the growth, so studies are focused on lowering their numbers.

For autoimmune diseases, trials are exploring boosting regulatory T-cells so the body is no longer being harmed. A similar approach could also be effective in minimizing the chances of transplanted organ failure.

Pioneering Studies

Professor Shimon Sakaguchi, of a Japanese institution, conducted experiments on rodents that had their thymus extracted, causing self-attack conditions.

He showed that injecting defense cells from other mice could prevent the disease—suggesting there was a mechanism for blocking defenders from harming the host.

Mary Brunkow, affiliated with the a research center in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, now at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco, were investigating an inherited autoimmune disease in mice and people that resulted in the identification of a gene vital for how T-regs function.

"Their groundbreaking research has uncovered how the body's defenses is kept in check by T-reg cells, preventing it from mistakenly targeting the healthy cells," commented a leading biological science specialist.

"The work is a striking example of how basic biological research can have far-reaching implications for public health."