Prestigious Award Honors Pioneering Body's Defenses Research

This year's prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for revolutionary discoveries that illuminate how the immune system attacks harmful pathogens while protecting the body's own cells.

A trio of esteemed researchers—from Japan Shimon Sakaguchi and American experts Dr. Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—share this accolade.

The research uncovered unique "security guards" within the defense system that remove rogue defense cells capable of attacking the body.

These findings are now paving the way for new treatments for immune disorders and cancer.

These winners will share a monetary award worth 11 million Swedish kronor.

Decisive Findings

"Their research has been decisive for comprehending how the body's defenses functions and the reason we do not all develop severe self-attack conditions," commented the chair of the Nobel Committee.

This trio's studies address a core mystery: In what way does the immune system protect us from countless infections while leaving our healthy cells unharmed?

Our immune system employs immune cells that search for indicators of disease, even viruses and bacteria it has never encountered.

Such cells employ sensors—known as receptors—that are produced by chance in a vast number of variations.

That provides the defense network the ability to fight a broad range of invaders, but the unpredictability of the mechanism unavoidably creates immune cells that can target the host.

Protectors of the Body

Researchers earlier knew that some of these problematic white blood cells were eliminated in the immune organ—the site where immune cells develop.

The latest Nobel Prize recognizes the identification of regulatory T-cells—described as the immune system's "security guards"—which travel through the system to disarm any defenders that assault the healthy cells.

It is known that this mechanism malfunctions in autoimmune diseases such as juvenile diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

A prize committee stated, "The findings have laid the foundation for a new field of investigation and accelerated the creation of new therapies, for instance for cancer and autoimmune diseases."

Regarding cancer, T-regs prevent the body from fighting the tumor, so research are focused on reducing their quantity.

For autoimmune diseases, experiments are exploring boosting regulatory T-cells so the organism is not under attack. A similar method could also be useful in reducing the risks of organ transplant failure.

Pioneering Studies

Prof Sakaguchi, of Osaka University, performed tests on rodents that had their immune gland extracted, causing self-attack conditions.

The researcher showed that injecting immune cells from other animals could prevent the illness—implying there was a mechanism for blocking defenders from attacking the host.

Mary Brunkow, affiliated with the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and Fred Ramsdell, now at a biotech firm in San Francisco, were investigating an genetic immune disorder in mice and humans that led to the identification of a gene critical for the way T-regs function.

"Their pioneering research has uncovered how the body's defenses is kept in check by regulatory T cells, stopping it from mistakenly targeting the healthy cells," commented a prominent physiology expert.

"The research is a remarkable illustration of how basic biological study can have broad implications for human health."