🔗 Share this article

The prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine has been granted for transformative discoveries that illuminate how the body's defense network attacks dangerous infections while protecting the healthy tissues.

A trio of esteemed researchers—Japan's Prof. Sakaguchi and US experts Dr. Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—received this accolade.

Their research uncovered specialized "sentinels" within the defense system that eliminate malfunctioning immune cells that could attacking the body.

These findings are now enabling innovative treatments for autoimmune diseases and malignancies.

The laureates will share a prize fund valued at 11 million SEK.

Decisive Findings

"Their work has been essential for comprehending how the body's defenses functions and why we don't all suffer from severe self-attack conditions," commented the head of the Nobel Committee.

This trio's studies address a core question: How does the defense system protect us from countless infections while keeping our healthy cells intact?

Our immune system uses immune cells that search for indicators of disease, including pathogens and germs it has never encountered.

Such cells utilize detectors—known as recognition units—that are produced by chance in a vast number of variations.

This provides the defense network the ability to fight a broad range of threats, but the randomness of the mechanism inevitably produces immune cells that may attack the body.

Protectors of the Immune System

Researchers earlier knew that some of these harmful white blood cells were destroyed in the immune organ—where immune cells mature.

This year's award recognizes the discovery of T-reg cells—known as the body's "peacekeepers"—which patrol the body to disarm other defenders that assault the body's own tissues.

We know that this mechanism fails in self-attack conditions such as juvenile diabetes, MS, and RA.

A Nobel panel stated, "These findings have established a novel area of research and spurred the creation of new treatments, for example for tumors and immune disorders."

In malignancies, T-regs block the body from attacking the tumor, so studies are focused on lowering their quantity.

In autoimmune diseases, experiments are exploring boosting T-reg cells so the body is no longer under attack. A comparable approach could also be useful in minimizing the risks of organ transplant rejection.

Pioneering Studies

Professor Shimon Sakaguchi, of a Japanese institution, conducted experiments on rodents that had their immune gland removed, leading to autoimmune disease.

The researcher showed that introducing defense cells from healthy mice could prevent the illness—suggesting there was a mechanism for blocking immune cells from attacking the body.

Mary Brunkow, affiliated with the a research center in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, now at a biotech firm in San Francisco, were studying an inherited immune disorder in mice and humans that led to the identification of a genetic factor vital for the way regulatory T-cells function.

"Their pioneering work has uncovered how the immune system is controlled by regulatory T cells, stopping it from accidentally targeting the body's own tissues," said a prominent biological science expert.

"The research is a striking illustration of how fundamental physiological research can have broad implications for human health."