🔗 Share this article

This year's prestigious award in medical science has been awarded for transformative findings that illuminate how the immune system targets harmful pathogens while protecting the healthy tissues.

Three esteemed scientists—Japan's Prof. Sakaguchi and US scientists Mary Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—received this honor.

Their work identified specialized "security guards" within the defense system that remove malfunctioning immune cells that could attacking the body.

These discoveries are now paving the way for new treatments for autoimmune diseases and cancer.

These winners will share a prize fund valued at 11m Swedish kronor.

Decisive Findings

"Their work has been decisive for comprehending how the body's defenses functions and the reason we do not all suffer from serious self-attack conditions," commented the head of the Nobel Committee.

This trio's studies address a core mystery: In what way does the defense system protect us from numerous infections while keeping our own tissues intact?

The body's protection system employs white blood cells that scan for signs of infection, even viruses and germs it has not met before.

Such defenders utilize detectors—called recognition units—that are produced by chance in countless variations.

That gives the immune system the capacity to combat a wide array of threats, but the randomness of the mechanism inevitably produces white blood cells that may target the host.

Protectors of the Body

Researchers earlier knew that some of these problematic defense cells were eliminated in the thymus—the site where immune cells develop.

The latest award honors the discovery of regulatory T-cells—known as the immune system's "security guards"—which patrol the body to neutralize any immune cells that attack the body's own tissues.

We know that this process malfunctions in self-attack conditions such as juvenile diabetes, MS, and rheumatoid arthritis.

The Nobel panel stated, "The findings have laid the foundation for a novel area of research and accelerated the creation of new therapies, for instance for cancer and immune disorders."

Regarding cancer, regulatory T-cells block the body from fighting the tumor, so research are aimed at lowering their numbers.

For autoimmune diseases, trials are exploring boosting T-reg cells so the body is no longer being harmed. A similar method could also be useful in reducing the chances of organ transplant rejection.

Innovative Experiments

Prof Sakaguchi, of Osaka University, conducted tests on mice that had their thymus extracted, leading to self-attack conditions.

The researcher demonstrated that injecting defense cells from other mice could stop the illness—suggesting there was a system for preventing defenders from harming the body.

Mary Brunkow, from the a research center in Seattle, and Dr. Ramsdell, currently at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in a California city, were investigating an inherited autoimmune disease in rodents and humans that led to the discovery of a genetic factor critical for how regulatory T-cells function.

"The groundbreaking work has uncovered how the immune system is kept in check by regulatory T cells, preventing it from accidentally attacking the body's own tissues," said a prominent physiology expert.

"The research is a striking illustration of how fundamental physiological research can have far-reaching implications for human health."