Nobel Award Honors Groundbreaking Body's Defenses Research

The prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine has been granted for revolutionary findings that illuminate how the body's defense network attacks dangerous pathogens while protecting the body's own cells.

A trio of renowned scientists—Japan's Prof. Sakaguchi and US experts Dr. Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—share this accolade.

The research uncovered specialized "security guards" within the immune system that remove rogue immune cells that could attacking the body.

These findings are now enabling innovative treatments for immune disorders and malignancies.

The winners will divide a monetary award valued at 11m SEK.

Decisive Findings

"Their work has been decisive for understanding how the body's defenses functions and why we do not all suffer from serious self-attack conditions," stated the chair of the Nobel Committee.

The trio's studies address a core mystery: How does the defense system protect us from countless invaders while keeping our healthy cells intact?

The body's protection system employs immune cells that scan for indicators of disease, even viruses and germs it has never encountered.

Such defenders employ sensors—called receptors—that are produced randomly in a vast number of variations.

That gives the immune system the ability to combat a broad range of threats, but the randomness of the process unavoidably creates white blood cells that may attack the body.

Protectors of the Body

Researchers previously understood that a portion of these problematic defense cells were eliminated in the thymus—the site where white blood cells mature.

The latest Nobel Prize honors the identification of regulatory T-cells—known as the immune system's "peacekeepers"—which patrol the body to disarm other immune cells that assault the healthy cells.

We know that this process malfunctions in self-attack conditions such as type-1 diabetes, MS, and RA.

The prize committee stated, "These findings have established a new field of investigation and spurred the development of new treatments, for instance for cancer and immune disorders."

In cancer, regulatory T-cells block the body from fighting the growth, so studies are focused on reducing their quantity.

For autoimmune diseases, experiments are testing increasing T-reg cells so the body is not under attack. A comparable approach could also be effective in minimizing the chances of transplanted organ failure.

Pioneering Experiments

Professor Shimon Sakaguchi, of Osaka University, performed experiments on mice that had their immune gland extracted, causing autoimmune disease.

The researcher showed that introducing defense cells from healthy mice could stop the disease—implying there was a system for blocking immune cells from harming the host.

Dr. Brunkow, from the a research center in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, currently at a biotech firm in San Francisco, were studying an genetic immune disorder in rodents and people that led to the discovery of a genetic factor vital for how regulatory T-cells operate.

"Their groundbreaking research has revealed how the immune system is kept in check by regulatory T cells, stopping it from accidentally attacking the healthy cells," commented a leading physiology specialist.

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