Nobel Prize Honors Groundbreaking Body's Defenses Research
This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was granted for transformative discoveries that clarify how the body's defense network attacks dangerous pathogens while protecting the body's own cells.
A trio of renowned scientists—Japan's Shimon Sakaguchi and American experts Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—received this honor.
Their work identified specialized "sentinels" within the defense system that remove rogue defense cells that could harming the organism.
The discoveries are now enabling new treatments for immune disorders and malignancies.
The laureates will divide a monetary award worth 11m Swedish kronor.
Decisive Findings
"Their research has been essential for comprehending how the immune system operates and the reason we do not all develop serious autoimmune diseases," commented the head of the Nobel Committee.
This team's research explain a core mystery: How does the defense system protect us from countless invaders while keeping our healthy cells unharmed?
Our body's protection system employs immune cells that search for indicators of infection, including pathogens and germs it has never encountered.
Such defenders employ sensors—known as receptors—that are generated by chance in countless combinations.
That gives the immune system the capacity to combat a wide array of invaders, but the unpredictability of the mechanism unavoidably produces white blood cells that may target the host.
Security Guards of the Immune System
Scientists previously understood that some of these harmful defense cells were destroyed in the immune organ—the site where white blood cells mature.
This year's award recognizes the identification of T-reg cells—described as the body's "security guards"—which patrol the body to disarm any immune cells that assault the body's own tissues.
It is known that this process fails in self-attack conditions such as type-1 diabetes, MS, and rheumatoid arthritis.
The prize committee added, "The discoveries have laid the foundation for a novel area of investigation and accelerated the creation of innovative treatments, for example for cancer and immune disorders."
Regarding cancer, T-regs prevent the system from attacking the tumor, so research are focused on reducing their numbers.
In autoimmune diseases, experiments are testing increasing regulatory T-cells so the organism is not being harmed. A similar method could also be effective in minimizing the chances of transplanted organ rejection.
Innovative Experiments
Professor Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, performed tests on mice that had their immune gland removed, causing autoimmune disease.
The researcher showed that introducing defense cells from healthy mice could prevent the illness—implying there was a system for preventing immune cells from attacking the body.
Dr. Brunkow, from the a research center in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, now at a biotech firm in a California city, were investigating an inherited autoimmune disease in rodents and humans that led to the identification of a gene critical for the way regulatory T-cells operate.
"The groundbreaking research has uncovered how the immune system is controlled by T-reg cells, preventing it from accidentally attacking the healthy cells," commented a leading biological science specialist.
"The work is a remarkable illustration of how basic biological study can have far-reaching implications for human health."
