Prestigious Prize Honors Groundbreaking Body's Defenses Research
The prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for revolutionary discoveries that illuminate how the body's defense network targets dangerous pathogens while sparing the healthy tissues.
Three esteemed scientists—Japan's Prof. Sakaguchi and American experts Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—received this honor.
The work uncovered unique "sentinels" within the defense system that eliminate malfunctioning immune cells that could harming the body.
These discoveries are now paving the way for new treatments for immune disorders and cancer.
These winners will share a prize fund worth 11m Swedish kronor.
Decisive Findings
"Their research has been decisive for understanding how the immune system operates and why we don't all develop serious autoimmune diseases," stated the head of the award panel.
This team's studies address a core mystery: In what way does the immune system defend us from numerous infections while leaving our own tissues intact?
Our immune system uses immune cells that search for indicators of infection, even viruses and bacteria it has not met before.
Such defenders utilize detectors—known as recognition units—that are produced by chance in countless combinations.
This gives the defense network the ability to combat a wide array of invaders, but the randomness of the process unavoidably produces white blood cells that can target the host.
Protectors of the Immune System
Scientists earlier knew that some of these problematic white blood cells were eliminated in the thymus—the site where immune cells develop.
The latest award recognizes the discovery of T-reg cells—described as the body's "peacekeepers"—which patrol the system to disarm any defenders that attack the body's own tissues.
It is known that this mechanism malfunctions in autoimmune diseases such as type-1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis.
The Nobel panel stated, "The discoveries have laid the foundation for a novel area of investigation and accelerated the development of new therapies, for example for cancer and immune disorders."
In malignancies, T-regs prevent the body from attacking the growth, so research are aimed at lowering their quantity.
For autoimmune diseases, experiments are exploring increasing regulatory T-cells so the organism is not being harmed. A comparable method could also be effective in reducing the risks of organ transplant rejection.
Pioneering Studies
Prof Shimon Sakaguchi, from a Japanese institution, performed tests on mice that had their immune gland extracted, causing self-attack conditions.
He showed that introducing defense cells from healthy animals could prevent the illness—implying there was a mechanism for blocking immune cells from attacking the body.
Mary Brunkow, from the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and Fred Ramsdell, currently at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in a California city, were studying an inherited autoimmune disease in mice and people that led to the identification of a genetic factor vital for the way regulatory T-cells function.
"The groundbreaking research has uncovered how the body's defenses is kept in check by regulatory T cells, stopping it from accidentally attacking the body's own tissues," said a leading physiology expert.
"This research is a remarkable illustration of how basic physiological study can have far-reaching implications for public health."
