Prestigious Prize Honors Pioneering Body's Defenses Discoveries

This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for transformative discoveries that clarify how the body's defense network targets harmful pathogens while sparing the healthy tissues.

A trio of esteemed researchers—Japan's Shimon Sakaguchi and American scientists Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—share this accolade.

Their work uncovered specialized "security guards" within the defense system that remove rogue defense cells that could harming the body.

These findings are now enabling innovative therapies for autoimmune diseases and malignancies.

These laureates will divide a monetary award valued at 11 million Swedish kronor.

Crucial Findings

"Their research has been decisive for understanding how the immune system functions and the reason we don't all suffer from severe autoimmune diseases," commented the head of the award panel.

The trio's studies explain a fundamental question: In what way does the defense system defend us from countless infections while keeping our healthy cells unharmed?

The body's protection system uses white blood cells that scan for signs of disease, even pathogens and bacteria it has not met before.

Such cells utilize sensors—known as recognition units—that are generated randomly in countless variations.

This provides the immune system the ability to fight a wide array of threats, but the unpredictability of the process inevitably produces immune cells that may attack the body.

Protectors of the Body

Researchers previously understood that a portion of these harmful defense cells were destroyed in the thymus—where immune cells mature.

The latest award recognizes the discovery of T-reg cells—described as the immune system's "peacekeepers"—which patrol the body to disarm any defenders that assault the healthy cells.

We know that this mechanism malfunctions in autoimmune diseases such as juvenile diabetes, MS, and RA.

The Nobel panel added, "The discoveries have laid the foundation for a novel area of investigation and spurred the development of innovative treatments, for example for cancer and autoimmune diseases."

In cancer, T-regs block the body from fighting the tumor, so studies are focused on lowering their quantity.

In autoimmune diseases, trials are testing boosting regulatory T-cells so the body is no longer under attack. A comparable approach could also be effective in minimizing the risks of transplanted organ failure.

Innovative Studies

Prof Sakaguchi, of Osaka University, performed experiments on rodents that had their thymus extracted, leading to autoimmune disease.

The researcher demonstrated that introducing defense cells from healthy animals could prevent the disease—suggesting there was a system for blocking immune cells from attacking the body.

Mary Brunkow, from the Institute for Systems Biology in a US city, and Dr. Ramsdell, currently at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in a California city, were studying an genetic immune disorder in mice and people that led to the discovery of a gene critical for how T-regs operate.

"The groundbreaking research has revealed how the immune system is controlled by T-reg cells, stopping it from mistakenly targeting the healthy cells," commented a prominent physiology specialist.

"The research is a striking example of how fundamental biological study can have broad implications for human health."