🔗 Share this article

This year's prestigious award in medical science was granted for transformative findings that clarify how the immune system targets dangerous pathogens while protecting the body's own cells.

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

Their research identified specialized "security guards" within the immune system that eliminate rogue defense cells capable of attacking the body.

The findings are now enabling new treatments for autoimmune diseases and malignancies.

These winners will divide a prize fund worth 11m Swedish kronor.

Decisive Findings

"Their research has been decisive for comprehending how the immune system functions and why we don't all suffer from serious self-attack conditions," stated the head of the Nobel Committee.

The trio's research address a core question: How does the immune system protect us from numerous invaders while keeping our own tissues intact?

Our body's protection system uses immune cells that scan for indicators of infection, including viruses and germs it has never encountered.

These cells utilize sensors—called receptors—that are produced randomly in a vast number of variations.

This provides the defense network the ability to fight a broad range of threats, but the unpredictability of the process inevitably creates immune cells that can target the host.

Protectors of the Immune System

Researchers previously understood that some of these harmful white blood cells were destroyed in the thymus—the site where white blood cells mature.

The latest award recognizes the identification of regulatory T-cells—described as the immune system's "peacekeepers"—which patrol the system to neutralize other immune cells that assault the healthy cells.

It is known that this process fails in self-attack conditions such as type-1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

The prize committee stated, "The discoveries have established a novel area of investigation and spurred the development of new therapies, for example for cancer and immune disorders."

Regarding malignancies, T-regs block the system from attacking the growth, so studies are aimed at reducing their quantity.

For autoimmune diseases, experiments are testing boosting regulatory T-cells so the body is not being harmed. A similar method could also be useful in minimizing the risks of organ transplant rejection.

Pioneering Experiments

Professor Shimon Sakaguchi, of Osaka University, conducted tests on rodents that had their thymus extracted, causing self-attack conditions.

The researcher showed that introducing immune cells from other animals could stop the disease—implying there was a system for blocking immune cells from harming the host.

Mary Brunkow, from the a research center in Seattle, and Dr. Ramsdell, now at a biotech firm in a California city, were studying an inherited autoimmune disease in mice and humans that resulted in the identification of a genetic factor critical for how T-regs function.

"The groundbreaking work has revealed how the body's defenses is controlled by T-reg cells, stopping it from mistakenly targeting the body's own tissues," said a prominent biological science specialist.

"The research is a remarkable example of how fundamental biological research can have far-reaching consequences for public health."