🔗 Share this article

This year's Nobel Prize in medical science was granted for transformative findings that illuminate how the body's defense network attacks harmful infections while sparing the healthy tissues.

Three renowned researchers—from Japan Prof. Sakaguchi and US scientists Dr. Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—share this accolade.

The research identified specialized "security guards" within the immune system that eliminate rogue defense cells capable of attacking the body.

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

These laureates will share a prize fund worth 11m SEK.

Crucial Findings

"The work has been decisive for comprehending how the immune system functions and the reason we don't all develop serious self-attack conditions," commented the head of the Nobel Committee.

This team's studies explain a fundamental mystery: How does the immune system protect us from numerous infections while leaving our own tissues intact?

Our body's protection system uses immune cells that search for indicators of infection, including viruses and bacteria it has never encountered.

These defenders utilize detectors—called recognition units—that are generated randomly in a vast number of variations.

This gives the immune system the capacity to fight a wide array of invaders, but the randomness of the process unavoidably produces immune cells that can attack the body.

Security Guards of the Body

Researchers earlier knew that a portion of these problematic defense cells were destroyed in the immune organ—the site where white blood cells mature.

The latest Nobel Prize recognizes the discovery of T-reg cells—known as the body's "security guards"—which travel through the system to neutralize other defenders that assault the body's own tissues.

We know that this process fails in autoimmune diseases such as juvenile diabetes, MS, and rheumatoid arthritis.

A prize committee added, "The findings have established a new field of research and accelerated the creation of new treatments, for instance for cancer and immune disorders."

Regarding malignancies, T-regs block the body from attacking the tumor, so studies are aimed at lowering their quantity.

In autoimmune diseases, trials are exploring boosting regulatory T-cells so the body is no longer being harmed. A comparable approach could also be useful in reducing the risks of organ transplant failure.

Pioneering Studies

Prof Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, performed tests on rodents that had their immune gland removed, causing autoimmune disease.

The researcher demonstrated that introducing defense cells from other animals could stop the disease—suggesting there was a system for blocking immune cells from attacking the body.

Dr. Brunkow, from the a research center in Seattle, and Fred Ramsdell, now at a biotech firm in San Francisco, were investigating an inherited immune disorder in rodents and humans that led to the discovery of a gene critical for the way T-regs operate.

"Their pioneering research has revealed how the body's defenses is kept in check by regulatory T cells, preventing it from mistakenly targeting the body's own tissues," commented a prominent biological science expert.

"This work is a striking example of how basic biological research can have far-reaching consequences for public health."