🔗 Share this article

This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been granted for transformative findings that clarify how the body's defense network targets harmful pathogens while protecting the healthy tissues.

Three renowned researchers—from Japan Shimon Sakaguchi and American scientists Dr. Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—share this honor.

The research identified unique "security guards" within the immune system that remove rogue defense cells capable of harming the body.

The findings are now enabling innovative therapies for autoimmune diseases and cancer.

The winners will divide a monetary award valued at 11 million SEK.

Decisive Discoveries

"Their research has been decisive for comprehending how the immune system functions and why we don't all suffer from severe autoimmune diseases," stated the head of the award panel.

This team's research explain a fundamental question: In what way does the immune system defend us from numerous invaders while leaving our healthy cells intact?

The immune system employs white blood cells that scan for signs of infection, including viruses and germs it has never encountered.

These cells utilize sensors—called recognition units—that are generated by chance in a vast number of variations.

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

Security Guards of the Body

Scientists earlier knew that some of these harmful defense cells were destroyed in the immune organ—where immune cells develop.

This year's award honors the discovery of T-reg cells—described as the immune system's "peacekeepers"—which travel through the body to disarm any defenders that assault the healthy cells.

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

The Nobel panel stated, "The discoveries have laid the foundation for a new field of investigation and spurred the creation of innovative treatments, for instance for cancer and immune disorders."

In cancer, T-regs block the system from attacking the growth, so studies are focused on lowering their numbers.

For autoimmune diseases, trials are testing boosting T-reg cells so the organism is no longer under attack. A comparable method could also be useful in minimizing the risks of transplanted organ failure.

Innovative Experiments

Professor Sakaguchi, of a Japanese institution, conducted tests on mice that had their immune gland extracted, leading to autoimmune disease.

He demonstrated that injecting defense cells from healthy animals could stop the disease—implying there was a mechanism for preventing defenders from harming the body.

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

"The groundbreaking work has revealed how the body's defenses is kept in check by T-reg cells, stopping it from mistakenly targeting the body's own tissues," commented a prominent biological science specialist.

"This work is a remarkable example of how fundamental physiological research can have broad implications for public health."