Prestigious Prize Honors Pioneering Body's Defenses Research

This year's prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded for revolutionary discoveries that illuminate how the body's defense network attacks dangerous infections while protecting the body's own cells.

Three renowned researchers—Japan's Prof. Sakaguchi and American scientists Mary Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—received this honor.

Their work identified unique "security guards" within the defense system that eliminate rogue immune cells capable of attacking the organism.

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

These winners will divide a monetary award worth 11 million SEK.

Decisive Discoveries

"The research has been essential for understanding how the immune system operates and why we don't all develop severe autoimmune diseases," commented the head of the award panel.

This trio's studies explain a fundamental mystery: In what way does the defense system protect us from countless invaders while leaving our healthy cells intact?

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

Such defenders employ detectors—called receptors—that are generated by chance in a vast number of combinations.

That gives the defense network the ability to combat a wide array of invaders, but the unpredictability of the process unavoidably produces immune cells that may attack the body.

Security Guards of the Immune System

Scientists earlier understood that some of these problematic defense cells were destroyed in the immune organ—the site where white blood cells develop.

The latest Nobel Prize honors the discovery of regulatory T-cells—known as the body's "security guards"—which travel through the body to disarm any defenders that attack the healthy cells.

We know that this mechanism malfunctions in autoimmune diseases such as type-1 diabetes, MS, and RA.

The prize committee added, "These findings have established a new field of investigation and spurred the development of innovative treatments, for example for cancer and autoimmune diseases."

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

In self-attack disorders, trials are testing increasing T-reg cells so the body is not under attack. A similar method could also be effective in minimizing the chances of transplanted organ failure.

Pioneering Experiments

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

The researcher showed that introducing defense cells from healthy animals could stop the disease—suggesting there was a mechanism for blocking immune cells from harming the host.

Mary Brunkow, affiliated with the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and Fred Ramsdell, now at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in a California city, were studying an genetic autoimmune disease in rodents and people that resulted in the discovery of a genetic factor critical for the way T-regs function.

"The groundbreaking work has uncovered how the body's defenses is controlled by regulatory T cells, stopping it from mistakenly targeting the healthy cells," said a prominent physiology expert.

"This research is a striking illustration of how fundamental biological research can have broad implications for public health."