Nobel Prize Honors Groundbreaking Body's Defenses Research
The prestigious award in medical science was awarded for transformative discoveries that clarify how the immune system targets harmful infections while sparing the healthy tissues.
Three renowned scientists—Japan's Shimon Sakaguchi and American experts Dr. Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—received this honor.
The research identified specialized "sentinels" within the defense system that eliminate rogue defense cells capable of attacking the body.
The findings are now enabling new therapies for autoimmune diseases and malignancies.
These laureates will share a prize fund worth 11 million Swedish kronor.
Decisive Findings
"The research has been decisive for comprehending how the body's defenses operates and the reason we don't all suffer from serious autoimmune diseases," commented the chair of the award panel.
The team's studies explain a fundamental question: How does the defense system defend us from numerous infections while leaving our healthy cells intact?
Our body's protection system employs immune cells that search for signs of disease, including pathogens and germs it has never encountered.
These defenders utilize sensors—known as receptors—that are generated randomly in countless combinations.
That gives the immune system the ability to combat a broad range of threats, but the randomness of the process inevitably produces white blood cells that can attack the host.
Protectors of the Immune System
Scientists previously knew that some of these harmful defense cells were destroyed in the immune organ—where immune cells mature.
This year's award honors the identification of regulatory T-cells—known as the body's "security guards"—which patrol the system to disarm other immune cells that assault the healthy cells.
We know that this mechanism fails in autoimmune diseases such as juvenile diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis.
The Nobel panel added, "These discoveries have established a new field of research and spurred the development of innovative treatments, for instance for tumors and autoimmune diseases."
Regarding cancer, T-regs block the system from fighting the growth, so research are focused on lowering their numbers.
In autoimmune diseases, experiments are testing boosting T-reg cells so the body is not being harmed. A similar method could also be effective in reducing the risks of organ transplant rejection.
Pioneering Studies
Prof Sakaguchi, of a Japanese institution, conducted tests on rodents that had their immune gland extracted, causing autoimmune disease.
He demonstrated that injecting defense cells from healthy mice could prevent the illness—implying there was a mechanism for preventing immune cells from attacking the host.
Dr. Brunkow, affiliated with the a research center in a US city, and Dr. Ramsdell, now at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco, were studying an inherited autoimmune disease in rodents and people that resulted in the discovery of a gene vital for the way T-regs function.
"Their groundbreaking research has uncovered how the immune system is kept in check by T-reg cells, preventing it from mistakenly attacking the body's own tissues," commented a prominent physiology expert.
"The research is a remarkable illustration of how basic biological research can have far-reaching consequences for public health."
