🔗 Share this article

The Nobel Prize in medical science has been awarded for revolutionary discoveries that illuminate how the immune system attacks dangerous infections while protecting the body's own cells.

A trio of renowned scientists—Japan's Prof. Sakaguchi and American experts Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—received this accolade.

The work uncovered unique "sentinels" within the defense system that remove rogue defense cells that could attacking the body.

These discoveries are now enabling innovative therapies for autoimmune diseases and cancer.

These laureates will share a monetary award valued at 11m Swedish kronor.

Decisive Discoveries

"Their work has been essential for understanding how the body's defenses 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 question: How does the immune system defend us from numerous invaders while leaving our healthy cells intact?

Our immune system employs immune cells that scan for indicators of disease, even viruses and bacteria it has not met before.

Such cells utilize detectors—known as recognition units—that are generated by chance in countless variations.

That provides the defense network the ability to fight a broad range of invaders, but the unpredictability of the process inevitably creates immune cells that may target the body.

Protectors of the Immune System

Scientists previously knew that some of these problematic white blood cells were eliminated in the immune organ—the site where immune cells mature.

The latest Nobel Prize honors the identification of regulatory T-cells—described as the body's "security guards"—which patrol the system to disarm other immune cells that attack the body's own tissues.

We know that this process malfunctions in self-attack conditions such as type-1 diabetes, MS, and RA.

A Nobel panel stated, "These discoveries have established a new field of investigation and accelerated the development of new therapies, for instance for cancer and autoimmune diseases."

In cancer, regulatory T-cells prevent the body from attacking the growth, so research are aimed at reducing their quantity.

In self-attack disorders, experiments are exploring boosting regulatory T-cells so the body is not under attack. A similar method could also be effective in reducing the chances of organ transplant rejection.

Pioneering Studies

Prof Sakaguchi, from a Japanese institution, conducted tests on mice that had their immune gland extracted, leading to self-attack conditions.

He showed that introducing immune cells from other mice could prevent the disease—implying there was a mechanism for preventing defenders from harming the host.

Mary Brunkow, affiliated with the a research center in Seattle, and Dr. Ramsdell, currently at a biotech firm in a California city, were studying an inherited autoimmune disease in mice and humans that led to the discovery of a gene critical for the way T-regs function.

"Their pioneering work has uncovered how the body's defenses is controlled by T-reg cells, stopping it from accidentally attacking the body's own tissues," said a leading physiology expert.

"This research is a remarkable example of how fundamental biological research can have far-reaching implications for human health."