🔗 Share this article

The Nobel Prize in medical science was granted for revolutionary findings that illuminate how the body's defense network attacks harmful infections while protecting the body's own cells.

Three renowned researchers—from Japan Shimon Sakaguchi and American experts Dr. Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—received this honor.

The work identified unique "sentinels" within the defense system that eliminate rogue immune cells capable of attacking the organism.

The discoveries are now enabling innovative therapies for autoimmune diseases and malignancies.

These laureates will share a prize fund worth 11m SEK.

Crucial Discoveries

"Their research has been decisive for understanding how the immune system operates and why we don't all suffer from serious self-attack conditions," stated the head of the Nobel Committee.

This trio's studies explain a fundamental mystery: In what way does the immune system defend us from countless invaders while keeping our own tissues intact?

The immune system employs immune cells that search for indicators of disease, including pathogens and bacteria it has not met before.

These defenders employ sensors—known as recognition units—that are generated randomly in countless variations.

That provides the defense network the ability to fight a wide array of invaders, but the randomness of the process unavoidably produces immune cells that can attack the body.

Security Guards of the Body

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

The latest award honors the discovery of T-reg cells—described as the body's "security guards"—which travel through the system to disarm other defenders that attack the healthy cells.

It is known that this process fails in self-attack conditions such as type-1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and RA.

A prize committee added, "These findings have established a new field of investigation and accelerated the development of innovative therapies, for instance for tumors and autoimmune diseases."

Regarding cancer, regulatory T-cells prevent the body from fighting the growth, so research are focused on lowering their numbers.

For self-attack disorders, trials are testing boosting T-reg cells so the organism is no longer being harmed. A comparable method could also be useful in reducing the chances of organ transplant failure.

Innovative Studies

Professor Sakaguchi, from a Japanese institution, conducted tests on rodents that had their immune gland removed, leading to autoimmune disease.

He showed that injecting immune cells from healthy animals could stop the disease—suggesting there was a mechanism for preventing defenders from harming the body.

Dr. Brunkow, from the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and Dr. Ramsdell, now at a biotech firm in a California city, were studying an inherited autoimmune disease in mice and people that led to the discovery of a gene vital for the way regulatory T-cells operate.

"Their groundbreaking research has uncovered how the immune system is controlled by regulatory T cells, stopping it from accidentally attacking the body's own tissues," said a prominent biological science specialist.

"The work is a striking illustration of how basic biological study can have broad consequences for public health."