Nobel Prize Recognizes Groundbreaking Immune System Discoveries
The prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded for transformative findings that illuminate how the body's defense network attacks dangerous infections while sparing the body's own cells.
Three renowned scientists—Japan's Shimon Sakaguchi and US experts Dr. Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—share this honor.
The work uncovered specialized "sentinels" within the immune system that remove rogue defense cells that could attacking the organism.
The findings are now paving the way for innovative therapies for immune disorders and malignancies.
The winners will divide a prize fund worth 11m SEK.
Crucial Findings
"The research has been essential for comprehending how the body's defenses functions and the reason we do not all develop serious autoimmune diseases," commented the chair of the award panel.
The team's studies address a fundamental question: How does the defense system protect us from numerous invaders while keeping our healthy cells unharmed?
Our immune system employs immune cells that search for indicators of infection, including pathogens and germs it has not met before.
Such cells employ detectors—known as receptors—that are generated by chance in a vast number of variations.
That provides the defense network the capacity to combat a broad range of threats, but the randomness of the mechanism inevitably creates white blood cells that may target the body.
Protectors of the Body
Researchers earlier understood that a portion of these harmful white blood cells were eliminated in the immune organ—where immune cells develop.
The latest award honors the discovery of regulatory T-cells—described as the immune system's "peacekeepers"—which patrol the system to disarm any immune cells that assault the healthy cells.
We know that this mechanism malfunctions in self-attack conditions such as type-1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis.
A prize committee added, "These findings have laid the foundation for a new field of investigation and accelerated the creation of innovative treatments, for instance for tumors and immune disorders."
In malignancies, T-regs prevent the body from attacking the growth, so research are focused on lowering their numbers.
For autoimmune diseases, trials are exploring increasing regulatory T-cells so the organism is no longer being harmed. A similar method could also be useful in reducing the risks of transplanted organ rejection.
Innovative Experiments
Professor Shimon Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, performed experiments on mice that had their thymus extracted, causing autoimmune disease.
The researcher showed that introducing defense cells from other mice could prevent the disease—suggesting there was a system for preventing defenders from attacking the host.
Dr. Brunkow, affiliated with the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and Fred Ramsdell, now at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco, were studying an inherited immune disorder in mice and people that resulted in the discovery of a genetic factor critical for the way T-regs operate.
"Their pioneering work has revealed how the immune system is kept in check by T-reg cells, preventing it from accidentally targeting the healthy cells," commented a prominent biological science expert.
"This work is a striking illustration of how basic physiological research can have broad implications for public health."
