🔗 Share this article

The prestigious award in medical science was granted for revolutionary discoveries that clarify how the immune system attacks dangerous infections while sparing the body's own cells.

Three esteemed scientists—Japan's Prof. Sakaguchi and American experts Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—share this honor.

Their work uncovered unique "sentinels" within the defense system that remove malfunctioning immune cells capable of attacking the organism.

These discoveries are now enabling innovative treatments for immune disorders and cancer.

These winners will share a monetary award valued at 11 million SEK.

Crucial Discoveries

"Their work has been essential for comprehending how the immune system functions and why we do not all suffer from severe self-attack conditions," stated the chair of the Nobel Committee.

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

Our body's protection system uses white blood cells that scan for indicators of disease, including viruses and bacteria it has not met before.

Such defenders employ detectors—known as receptors—that are generated randomly in a vast number of combinations.

That provides the defense network the capacity to fight a broad range of invaders, but the randomness of the mechanism inevitably produces white blood cells that can target the body.

Protectors of the Body

Scientists earlier understood that some of these harmful white blood cells were eliminated in the thymus—where immune cells develop.

This year's Nobel Prize honors the identification of regulatory T-cells—described as the body's "security guards"—which travel through the system to neutralize any immune cells that attack the healthy cells.

It is known that this process malfunctions in autoimmune diseases such as type-1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and RA.

The Nobel panel added, "These findings have laid the foundation for a new field of investigation and accelerated the development of new treatments, for example for tumors and immune disorders."

Regarding malignancies, T-regs prevent the body from fighting the growth, so research are aimed at reducing their numbers.

For autoimmune diseases, experiments are testing increasing T-reg cells so the body is not under attack. A comparable method could also be useful in minimizing the chances of organ transplant failure.

Innovative Studies

Prof Sakaguchi, of a Japanese institution, conducted experiments on mice that had their immune gland extracted, causing autoimmune disease.

He showed that introducing immune cells from other animals could prevent the disease—suggesting there was a mechanism for blocking defenders from attacking the host.

Mary Brunkow, affiliated with the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and Fred Ramsdell, currently at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco, were investigating an inherited autoimmune disease in rodents and humans that resulted in the identification of a gene critical for the way T-regs function.

"Their pioneering work has revealed how the immune system is kept in check by regulatory T cells, stopping it from mistakenly attacking the healthy cells," said a prominent biological science expert.

"The work is a remarkable illustration of how basic physiological research can have broad implications for public health."