🔗 Share this article

The Nobel Prize in medical science was granted for revolutionary findings that clarify how the body's defense network targets harmful pathogens while sparing the body's own cells.

A trio of renowned researchers—from Japan Shimon Sakaguchi and US experts Dr. Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—received this honor.

The research identified specialized "sentinels" within the immune system that remove rogue defense cells capable of attacking the body.

These discoveries are now enabling innovative treatments for autoimmune diseases and cancer.

These laureates will share a prize fund valued at 11m SEK.

Crucial Discoveries

"Their research has been decisive for understanding how the immune system functions and why we do not all develop severe autoimmune diseases," commented the chair of the Nobel Committee.

This team's research explain a core question: In what way does the defense system defend us from countless invaders while leaving our own tissues intact?

The body's protection system employs white blood cells that scan for signs of infection, even pathogens and bacteria it has never encountered.

These cells employ sensors—known as receptors—that are produced randomly in countless variations.

That gives the defense network the capacity to combat a wide array of threats, but the randomness of the mechanism inevitably creates white blood cells that may target the body.

Protectors of the Body

Scientists previously knew that some of these harmful white blood cells were eliminated in the immune organ—where white blood cells mature.

This year's Nobel Prize recognizes the discovery of regulatory T-cells—known as the body's "security guards"—which travel through the system to neutralize any defenders that assault the body's own tissues.

It is known that this mechanism fails in self-attack conditions such as juvenile diabetes, MS, and RA.

The Nobel panel added, "These findings have established a novel area of investigation and spurred the creation of new treatments, for instance for tumors and immune disorders."

In malignancies, T-regs block the body from fighting the growth, so studies are aimed at reducing their quantity.

For self-attack disorders, trials are testing boosting regulatory T-cells so the body is no longer under attack. A comparable method could also be useful in minimizing the risks of organ transplant failure.

Innovative Studies

Prof Sakaguchi, of Osaka University, conducted tests on rodents that had their immune gland extracted, causing autoimmune disease.

He showed that introducing immune cells from healthy mice could stop the disease—suggesting there was a mechanism for blocking defenders from harming the body.

Dr. Brunkow, affiliated with the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and Dr. Ramsdell, now at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in a California city, were investigating an genetic immune disorder in mice and humans that led to the discovery of a genetic factor critical for the way T-regs operate.

"The pioneering work has uncovered how the body's defenses is controlled by regulatory T cells, stopping it from accidentally targeting the body's own tissues," said a prominent biological science expert.

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