Nobel Prize Recognizes Groundbreaking Body's Defenses Research
This year's prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine has been granted for revolutionary findings that illuminate how the immune system attacks dangerous infections while sparing the healthy tissues.
Three renowned scientists—from Japan Shimon Sakaguchi and US experts Dr. Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—share this accolade.
The research identified unique "sentinels" within the defense system that remove rogue defense cells capable of attacking the body.
These discoveries are now enabling innovative treatments for immune disorders and malignancies.
These winners will divide a monetary award valued at 11 million Swedish kronor.
Crucial Discoveries
"Their work has been decisive for understanding how the body's defenses operates and the reason we don't all develop serious autoimmune diseases," stated the chair of the award panel.
The team's studies explain a core question: In what way does the defense system defend us from countless infections while leaving our own tissues intact?
Our body's protection system uses white blood cells that search for indicators of infection, including viruses and bacteria it has never encountered.
These cells employ detectors—called recognition units—that are produced by chance in countless combinations.
That provides the defense network the ability to combat a wide array of threats, but the unpredictability of the process unavoidably produces immune cells that can target the body.
Protectors of the Body
Scientists earlier knew that some of these harmful defense cells were destroyed in the immune organ—where immune cells mature.
The latest Nobel Prize recognizes the discovery of T-reg cells—known as the body's "security guards"—which patrol the system to neutralize other immune cells that assault the healthy cells.
It is known that this mechanism fails in self-attack conditions such as type-1 diabetes, MS, and rheumatoid arthritis.
A Nobel panel added, "These findings have laid the foundation for a new field of investigation and accelerated the development of innovative treatments, for instance for tumors and immune disorders."
Regarding malignancies, T-regs block the system from fighting the growth, so research are focused on lowering their numbers.
For self-attack disorders, experiments are exploring boosting T-reg cells so the body is not being harmed. A similar method could also be useful in minimizing the risks of organ transplant failure.
Pioneering Studies
Prof Sakaguchi, from a Japanese institution, performed tests on mice that had their immune gland extracted, leading to autoimmune disease.
The researcher demonstrated that introducing immune cells from healthy animals could stop the illness—suggesting there was a mechanism for blocking immune cells from harming the body.
Dr. Brunkow, from the a research center in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, currently at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco, were studying an inherited autoimmune disease in mice and humans that led to the identification of a genetic factor critical for the way regulatory T-cells operate.
"Their pioneering work has uncovered how the body's defenses is controlled by T-reg cells, stopping it from accidentally attacking the body's own tissues," commented a prominent biological science specialist.
"This research is a striking illustration of how fundamental biological research can have broad implications for public health."