🔗 Share this article

This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been granted for revolutionary findings that illuminate how the immune system targets harmful pathogens while protecting the body's own cells.

A trio of esteemed scientists—from Japan Shimon Sakaguchi and American scientists Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—received this accolade.

The research uncovered specialized "sentinels" within the defense system that eliminate malfunctioning defense cells that could harming the organism.

The findings are now paving the way for new therapies for autoimmune diseases and malignancies.

The winners will divide a monetary award worth 11m SEK.

Decisive Findings

"The research has been essential for understanding how the body's defenses operates and why we don't all suffer from serious self-attack conditions," stated the head of the Nobel Committee.

The team's studies address a core question: In what way does the defense system defend us from numerous infections while leaving our own tissues unharmed?

The immune system employs white blood cells that search for indicators of disease, including viruses and germs it has not met before.

These defenders utilize detectors—called receptors—that are produced by chance in a vast number of combinations.

This gives the defense network the ability to fight a wide array of invaders, but the unpredictability of the mechanism inevitably creates immune cells that may target the host.

Security Guards of the Immune System

Researchers previously knew that some of these harmful defense cells were destroyed in the immune organ—where immune cells mature.

This year's Nobel Prize honors the discovery of regulatory T-cells—described as the body's "peacekeepers"—which patrol the body to neutralize any defenders that attack the healthy cells.

It is known that this process malfunctions in autoimmune diseases such as juvenile diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and RA.

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

In cancer, T-regs block the system from fighting the growth, so research are focused on lowering their quantity.

In self-attack disorders, trials are exploring increasing T-reg cells so the organism is not being harmed. A similar method could also be effective in reducing the chances of organ transplant rejection.

Innovative Studies

Prof Shimon Sakaguchi, from a Japanese institution, performed tests on rodents that had their thymus extracted, causing autoimmune disease.

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

Mary Brunkow, from the Institute for Systems Biology in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, now at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco, were studying an inherited immune disorder in mice and people that resulted in the discovery of a genetic factor vital for how T-regs operate.

"The pioneering work has revealed how the body's defenses is controlled by regulatory T cells, preventing it from mistakenly attacking the healthy cells," said a prominent physiology expert.

"This research is a remarkable illustration of how fundamental physiological study can have broad implications for public health."