🔗 Share this article

This year's prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for transformative findings that illuminate how the body's defense network targets harmful pathogens while protecting the healthy tissues.

A trio of esteemed researchers—from Japan Prof. Sakaguchi and US experts Mary Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—share this accolade.

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

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

The winners will share a monetary award worth 11m Swedish kronor.

Crucial Findings

"The research has been decisive for understanding how the body's defenses functions and why we do not all develop serious autoimmune diseases," stated the chair of the Nobel Committee.

The team's research explain a core question: How does the defense system defend us from numerous infections while leaving our own tissues unharmed?

The immune system employs immune cells that scan for signs of disease, including viruses and germs it has never encountered.

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

This provides the immune system the capacity to fight a wide array of threats, but the randomness of the process inevitably creates white blood cells that can attack the host.

Protectors of the Immune System

Researchers earlier understood that a portion of these harmful defense cells were eliminated in the thymus—where white blood cells develop.

The latest award honors the identification of regulatory T-cells—described as the body's "peacekeepers"—which travel through the body to disarm any defenders that attack the healthy cells.

It is known that this mechanism fails in autoimmune diseases such as type-1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and RA.

A prize committee added, "The findings have laid the foundation for a novel area of research and spurred the creation of innovative treatments, for instance for cancer and immune disorders."

Regarding malignancies, regulatory T-cells prevent the system from fighting the tumor, so research are aimed at lowering their numbers.

For autoimmune diseases, experiments are testing increasing regulatory T-cells so the organism is no longer under attack. A similar method could also be effective in reducing the chances of transplanted organ rejection.

Innovative Experiments

Prof Sakaguchi, from a Japanese institution, performed experiments on rodents that had their immune gland removed, leading to autoimmune disease.

He showed that introducing immune cells from other mice could prevent the illness—suggesting there was a mechanism for preventing defenders from attacking the host.

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

"The groundbreaking research has uncovered how the body's defenses is controlled by regulatory T cells, stopping it from mistakenly attacking the body's own tissues," commented a prominent biological science expert.

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