🔗 Share this article

The prestigious award in medical science has been awarded for revolutionary discoveries that clarify how the immune system attacks dangerous infections while protecting the body's own cells.

A trio of renowned scientists—Japan's Prof. Sakaguchi and American scientists Dr. Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—received this accolade.

The work uncovered unique "security guards" within the immune system that remove rogue defense cells capable of attacking the organism.

These discoveries are now paving the way for innovative therapies for immune disorders and cancer.

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

Crucial Discoveries

"The work has been decisive for comprehending how the body's defenses operates and why we do not all suffer from serious autoimmune diseases," stated the head of the award panel.

This team's studies address a fundamental mystery: How does the immune system defend us from numerous invaders while keeping our healthy cells intact?

Our body's protection system uses white blood cells that scan for signs of disease, including pathogens and bacteria it has never encountered.

Such cells utilize detectors—called receptors—that are generated randomly in a vast number of combinations.

This provides the defense network the capacity to fight a wide array of threats, but the randomness of the mechanism unavoidably creates white blood cells that may attack the host.

Security Guards of the Body

Researchers earlier knew that some of these harmful white blood cells were destroyed in the thymus—where white blood cells develop.

This year's Nobel Prize honors the identification of regulatory T-cells—known as the immune system's "security guards"—which travel through the body to disarm other defenders that attack the body's own tissues.

It is known that this process malfunctions in self-attack conditions such as type-1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

The prize committee stated, "The discoveries have laid the foundation for a novel area of research and spurred the development of innovative treatments, for instance for tumors and autoimmune diseases."

In cancer, regulatory T-cells block the system from attacking the growth, so research are aimed at reducing their numbers.

For autoimmune diseases, trials are exploring boosting regulatory T-cells so the body is not under attack. A comparable approach could also be useful in reducing the risks of transplanted organ failure.

Pioneering Studies

Prof Shimon Sakaguchi, of a Japanese institution, conducted tests on mice that had their immune gland extracted, leading to self-attack conditions.

He showed that introducing immune cells from other animals could stop the disease—suggesting there was a system for blocking defenders from harming the body.

Dr. Brunkow, affiliated with the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and Fred Ramsdell, now at a biotech firm in San Francisco, were studying an inherited immune disorder in rodents and humans that led to the discovery of a genetic factor vital for the way regulatory T-cells function.

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

"The work is a striking illustration of how basic physiological study can have broad implications for public health."