Nobel Award Recognizes Groundbreaking Immune System Discoveries
The prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine has been granted for revolutionary findings that clarify how the body's defense network attacks dangerous pathogens while sparing the body's own cells.
Three esteemed scientists—Japan's Shimon Sakaguchi and American experts Mary Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—share this accolade.
The research identified specialized "security guards" within the defense system that eliminate rogue immune cells that could attacking the organism.
The discoveries are now paving the way for new treatments for autoimmune diseases and cancer.
These winners will share a prize fund worth 11m SEK.
Decisive Discoveries
"The work has been decisive for comprehending how the immune system functions and why we don't all develop severe autoimmune diseases," stated the head of the Nobel Committee.
The trio's studies explain a core question: How does the defense system defend us from countless invaders while leaving our own tissues unharmed?
Our body's protection system uses white blood cells that search for indicators of disease, including viruses and germs it has never encountered.
Such defenders employ detectors—called recognition units—that are generated by chance in a vast number of combinations.
That gives the immune system the capacity to fight a broad range of threats, but the unpredictability of the mechanism unavoidably produces white blood cells that can attack the body.
Security Guards of the Body
Scientists earlier knew that some of these harmful defense cells were eliminated in the thymus—the site where immune cells develop.
The latest Nobel Prize honors the discovery of T-reg cells—known as the body's "security guards"—which patrol the system to disarm other defenders that assault the body's own tissues.
It is known that this mechanism fails in autoimmune diseases such as type-1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and RA.
A Nobel panel added, "The findings have laid the foundation for a new field of investigation and accelerated the development of innovative treatments, for example for cancer and immune disorders."
In cancer, T-regs block the system from fighting the tumor, so research are focused on lowering their quantity.
In autoimmune diseases, trials are exploring increasing T-reg cells so the body is not being harmed. A comparable method could also be useful in minimizing the chances of organ transplant rejection.
Innovative Experiments
Professor Sakaguchi, of Osaka University, conducted experiments on mice that had their thymus extracted, causing autoimmune disease.
The researcher showed that injecting defense cells from healthy mice could stop the illness—suggesting there was a system for preventing defenders from attacking the host.
Mary Brunkow, affiliated with the a research center in Seattle, and Fred Ramsdell, currently at a biotech firm in a California city, were studying an genetic autoimmune disease in rodents and humans that led to the identification of a genetic factor vital for the way T-regs function.
"The groundbreaking research has revealed how the body's defenses is controlled by T-reg cells, preventing it from mistakenly targeting the healthy cells," said a leading biological science expert.
"The research is a striking illustration of how basic biological study can have far-reaching implications for human health."
