🔗 Share this article

This year's prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded for revolutionary discoveries that illuminate how the body's defense network attacks dangerous pathogens while sparing the body's own cells.

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

Their work uncovered unique "sentinels" within the defense system that remove malfunctioning immune cells capable of harming the organism.

The findings are now enabling new treatments for immune disorders and malignancies.

The winners will share a monetary award worth 11 million Swedish kronor.

Crucial Discoveries

"The research has been essential for understanding how the body's defenses functions and the reason we do not all develop serious autoimmune diseases," commented the chair of the Nobel Committee.

This trio's studies explain a fundamental mystery: How does the defense system protect us from countless infections while keeping our healthy cells intact?

The immune system uses immune cells that search for signs of infection, even viruses and germs it has never encountered.

These defenders employ sensors—called recognition units—that are generated randomly in a vast number of variations.

This provides the defense network the ability to fight a wide array of threats, but the randomness of the mechanism inevitably creates white blood cells that can attack the body.

Security Guards of the Body

Researchers earlier understood that a portion of these problematic white blood cells were eliminated in the immune organ—where white blood cells mature.

This year's award honors the identification of regulatory T-cells—known as the immune system's "security guards"—which patrol the body to neutralize any immune cells that assault the healthy cells.

We know that this mechanism fails in autoimmune diseases such as type-1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

A Nobel panel added, "These findings have laid the foundation for a novel area of investigation and spurred the creation of new treatments, for example for cancer and autoimmune diseases."

In malignancies, T-regs block the body from fighting the growth, so research are aimed at lowering their quantity.

In self-attack disorders, experiments are exploring boosting regulatory T-cells so the organism is no longer being harmed. A comparable method could also be effective in minimizing the chances of transplanted organ rejection.

Pioneering Experiments

Prof Sakaguchi, of Osaka University, conducted experiments on mice that had their immune gland removed, causing autoimmune disease.

He showed that introducing immune cells from other mice could prevent the disease—implying there was a mechanism for preventing immune cells from attacking the host.

Mary Brunkow, affiliated with the a research center in a US city, and Dr. Ramsdell, currently at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in a California city, were studying an inherited autoimmune disease in mice and people that led to the identification of a genetic factor critical for the way T-regs operate.

"Their groundbreaking research has revealed how the body's defenses is kept in check by regulatory T cells, preventing it from accidentally attacking the body's own tissues," commented a leading physiology specialist.

"The research is a striking example of how basic biological research can have broad consequences for human health."