Prestigious Prize Recognizes Pioneering Immune System Discoveries

The prestigious award in medical science was granted for transformative discoveries that illuminate how the immune system attacks harmful infections while protecting the body's own cells.

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

The research uncovered specialized "security guards" within the immune system that eliminate rogue immune cells capable of attacking the organism.

The discoveries are now enabling innovative therapies for immune disorders and cancer.

The laureates will share a prize fund worth 11m Swedish kronor.

Decisive Discoveries

"The work has been decisive for comprehending how the body's defenses functions and why we don't all develop serious autoimmune diseases," commented the chair of the award panel.

This trio's research address a fundamental mystery: In what way does the immune system defend us from numerous infections while leaving our healthy cells unharmed?

The body's protection system employs white blood cells that scan for indicators of infection, including pathogens and bacteria it has not met before.

These defenders utilize sensors—known as receptors—that are produced randomly in a vast number of combinations.

This provides the immune system the capacity to combat a broad range of invaders, but the randomness of the process unavoidably creates white blood cells that can target the body.

Security Guards of the Body

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

The latest Nobel Prize honors the identification of regulatory T-cells—described as the body's "peacekeepers"—which travel through the system to disarm other defenders that assault the body's own tissues.

We know that this process malfunctions in autoimmune diseases such as type-1 diabetes, MS, and rheumatoid arthritis.

The Nobel panel added, "The findings have established a novel area of research and spurred the development of new treatments, for instance for tumors and autoimmune diseases."

In malignancies, T-regs prevent the system from attacking the growth, so research are aimed at lowering their quantity.

In self-attack disorders, experiments are testing increasing T-reg cells so the organism is no longer under attack. A comparable approach could also be effective in minimizing the chances of transplanted organ rejection.

Pioneering Studies

Professor Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, performed experiments on rodents that had their immune gland extracted, causing self-attack conditions.

The researcher demonstrated that injecting immune cells from other animals could prevent the disease—implying there was a mechanism for preventing immune cells from attacking the body.

Mary Brunkow, from the a research center in a US city, and Dr. Ramsdell, now at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in a California city, were investigating an genetic autoimmune disease in mice and people that led to the discovery of a genetic factor critical for how regulatory T-cells function.

"The groundbreaking work has uncovered how the body's defenses is controlled by T-reg cells, stopping it from mistakenly attacking the healthy cells," commented a leading physiology expert.

"The work is a remarkable example of how fundamental physiological study can have broad consequences for public health."