🔗 Share this article

This year's Nobel Prize in medical science has been awarded for revolutionary findings that illuminate how the immune system attacks harmful pathogens while sparing the healthy tissues.

Three renowned researchers—from Japan Prof. Sakaguchi and American experts Dr. Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—share this accolade.

The research uncovered unique "security guards" within the defense system that remove rogue immune cells that could harming the organism.

These findings are now enabling new therapies for immune disorders and malignancies.

These winners will share a prize fund worth 11 million SEK.

Decisive Discoveries

"Their work has been essential for understanding how the body's defenses operates and why we do not all develop severe autoimmune diseases," commented the chair of the Nobel Committee.

The team's studies explain a core mystery: How does the defense system defend us from numerous invaders while leaving our own tissues intact?

Our body's protection system employs white blood cells that scan for indicators of infection, even pathogens and germs it has never encountered.

These defenders utilize sensors—called receptors—that are produced randomly in countless variations.

That provides the immune system the capacity to fight a broad range of threats, but the unpredictability of the mechanism unavoidably creates immune cells that can target the host.

Protectors of the Immune System

Scientists earlier knew that a portion of these harmful white blood cells were destroyed in the thymus—the site where white blood cells mature.

This year's award recognizes the identification of regulatory T-cells—described as the immune system's "peacekeepers"—which patrol the body to neutralize other immune cells that assault the healthy cells.

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

A prize committee stated, "These discoveries have established a new field of research and accelerated the creation of new therapies, for instance for cancer and immune disorders."

Regarding cancer, T-regs prevent the body from fighting the growth, so research are focused on reducing their numbers.

In self-attack disorders, experiments are exploring boosting T-reg cells so the organism is no longer being harmed. A comparable approach could also be effective in minimizing the chances of organ transplant rejection.

Pioneering Studies

Prof Shimon Sakaguchi, of Osaka University, performed tests on mice that had their immune gland extracted, leading to autoimmune disease.

The researcher demonstrated that injecting defense cells from other mice could prevent the disease—implying there was a system for blocking immune cells from harming the body.

Mary Brunkow, from the a research center in Seattle, and Fred Ramsdell, now at a biotech firm in a California city, were studying an genetic autoimmune disease in mice and people that led to the identification of a genetic factor critical for how regulatory T-cells function.

"The groundbreaking work has uncovered how the body's defenses is controlled by T-reg cells, stopping it from accidentally targeting the healthy cells," said a leading biological science expert.

"The work is a remarkable example of how fundamental physiological study can have far-reaching implications for human health."