Nobel Award Honors Groundbreaking Immune System Discoveries
This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for revolutionary findings that clarify how the immune system attacks dangerous infections while protecting the body's own cells.
Three esteemed researchers—Japan's Prof. Sakaguchi and American scientists Dr. Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—share this honor.
Their work identified specialized "security guards" within the defense system that eliminate rogue defense cells capable of harming the organism.
These discoveries are now paving the way for new therapies for autoimmune diseases and cancer.
These laureates will divide a prize fund worth 11 million Swedish kronor.
Crucial Discoveries
"The work has been decisive for understanding how the immune system functions and why we do not all suffer from severe autoimmune diseases," commented the chair of the award panel.
This team's research explain a core question: How does the defense system protect us from countless infections while leaving our own tissues intact?
The body's protection system employs immune cells that scan for signs of infection, including viruses and bacteria it has never encountered.
Such defenders employ detectors—called receptors—that are generated by chance in countless combinations.
That provides the defense network the ability to combat a broad range of threats, but the unpredictability of the mechanism inevitably produces white blood cells that can attack the body.
Security Guards of the Immune System
Scientists earlier understood that some of these harmful white blood cells were eliminated in the thymus—the site where immune cells mature.
The latest Nobel Prize recognizes the discovery of T-reg cells—known as the body's "peacekeepers"—which travel through the body to neutralize other defenders that assault the body's own tissues.
It is known that this process fails in autoimmune diseases such as type-1 diabetes, MS, and RA.
The Nobel panel stated, "The findings have established a new field of research and accelerated the creation of innovative treatments, for instance for tumors and autoimmune diseases."
Regarding cancer, T-regs block the body from attacking the growth, so research are aimed at reducing their quantity.
In self-attack disorders, trials are testing boosting T-reg cells so the body is not being harmed. A comparable approach could also be useful in minimizing the chances of transplanted organ failure.
Pioneering Studies
Professor Shimon Sakaguchi, of Osaka University, conducted tests on rodents that had their thymus removed, leading to autoimmune disease.
The researcher demonstrated that introducing defense cells from other animals could stop the disease—implying there was a system for preventing immune cells from harming the body.
Dr. Brunkow, affiliated with the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and Fred Ramsdell, currently at a biotech firm in a California city, were studying an genetic autoimmune disease in mice and humans that led to the discovery of a genetic factor vital for how regulatory T-cells function.
"Their groundbreaking work has revealed how the immune system is kept in check by regulatory T cells, preventing it from mistakenly targeting the healthy cells," said a leading physiology expert.
"This work is a remarkable illustration of how basic biological study can have broad consequences for human health."
