🔗 Share this article

This year's prestigious award in medical science was granted for revolutionary discoveries that illuminate how the body's defense network attacks dangerous infections while sparing the healthy tissues.

Three esteemed scientists—from Japan Shimon Sakaguchi and US experts Dr. Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—received this honor.

The research identified specialized "security guards" within the immune system that remove malfunctioning defense cells that could harming the body.

These findings are now enabling new treatments for autoimmune diseases and malignancies.

The winners will divide a monetary award valued at 11m Swedish kronor.

Crucial Findings

"The research has been decisive for understanding how the immune system functions and the reason we do not all develop serious self-attack conditions," commented the head of the award panel.

This trio's research explain a fundamental mystery: In what way does the defense system protect us from numerous infections while leaving our own tissues intact?

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

Such defenders employ sensors—called recognition units—that are generated by chance in countless combinations.

That provides the immune system the ability to fight a broad range of threats, but the unpredictability of the mechanism inevitably produces immune cells that may target the body.

Protectors of the Body

Researchers previously knew that a portion of these harmful defense cells were destroyed in the immune organ—where immune cells mature.

This year's Nobel Prize recognizes the discovery of regulatory T-cells—known as the immune system's "security guards"—which travel through the system to neutralize other defenders that assault the healthy cells.

We know that this process malfunctions in self-attack conditions such as type-1 diabetes, MS, and RA.

A Nobel panel added, "The discoveries have established a new field of investigation and accelerated the development of innovative therapies, for example for tumors and autoimmune diseases."

Regarding malignancies, T-regs block the system from attacking the growth, so research are focused on lowering their quantity.

In autoimmune diseases, trials are exploring increasing regulatory T-cells so the body is not under attack. A comparable method could also be effective in minimizing the chances of organ transplant rejection.

Pioneering Studies

Professor Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, performed tests on rodents that had their thymus removed, leading to self-attack conditions.

He demonstrated that injecting immune cells from healthy animals could prevent the disease—suggesting there was a mechanism for blocking immune cells from harming the host.

Mary Brunkow, from the a research center in a US city, and Dr. Ramsdell, now at a biotech firm in a California city, were studying an inherited autoimmune disease in mice and humans that resulted in the identification of a genetic factor critical for how regulatory T-cells operate.

"The pioneering work has revealed how the immune system is kept in check by T-reg cells, preventing it from accidentally attacking the body's own tissues," commented a prominent physiology expert.

"This research is a remarkable illustration of how basic biological research can have far-reaching consequences for human health."