Prestigious Prize Recognizes Pioneering Immune System Research
The prestigious award in medical science was awarded for transformative discoveries that illuminate how the immune system targets harmful pathogens while sparing the healthy tissues.
Three esteemed researchers—from Japan Shimon Sakaguchi and American scientists Dr. Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—share this honor.
The work uncovered specialized "sentinels" within the defense system that eliminate rogue immune cells capable of harming the organism.
The discoveries are now paving the way for new treatments for immune disorders and cancer.
These winners will share a monetary award worth 11 million SEK.
Crucial Findings
"Their research has been essential for understanding how the body's defenses functions and why we don't all develop serious self-attack conditions," commented the head of the Nobel Committee.
This team's research explain a core question: In what way does the immune system defend us from numerous infections while keeping our healthy cells unharmed?
The immune system uses white blood cells that search for signs of disease, even pathogens and germs it has never encountered.
These cells employ detectors—known as recognition units—that are produced randomly in countless variations.
This provides the immune system the ability to fight a wide array of threats, but the unpredictability of the mechanism unavoidably produces immune cells that may attack the host.
Protectors of the Immune System
Researchers previously knew that some of these problematic defense cells were eliminated in the thymus—the site where immune cells mature.
The latest Nobel Prize honors the identification of T-reg cells—described as the body's "security guards"—which patrol the system to disarm any immune cells that assault the body's own tissues.
We know that this process malfunctions in autoimmune diseases such as juvenile diabetes, MS, and RA.
A Nobel panel added, "The discoveries have laid the foundation for a new field of investigation and spurred the creation of new treatments, for instance for cancer and autoimmune diseases."
Regarding cancer, regulatory T-cells prevent the system from fighting the growth, so studies are aimed at lowering their quantity.
In autoimmune diseases, experiments are testing boosting regulatory T-cells so the organism is no longer being harmed. A similar approach could also be effective in minimizing the chances of organ transplant rejection.
Pioneering Experiments
Professor Shimon Sakaguchi, from a Japanese institution, performed tests on mice that had their thymus extracted, leading to self-attack conditions.
The researcher showed that injecting defense cells from other animals could prevent the disease—suggesting there was a system for blocking defenders from attacking the body.
Dr. Brunkow, affiliated with the a research center in Seattle, and Dr. Ramsdell, currently at a biotech firm in a California city, were investigating an inherited autoimmune disease in rodents and people that led to the discovery of a genetic factor vital for how T-regs function.
"Their pioneering research has revealed how the body's defenses is kept in check by regulatory T cells, stopping it from accidentally attacking the healthy cells," said a leading physiology expert.
"The research is a remarkable illustration of how basic physiological research can have broad consequences for human health."
