Nobel Prize Honors Pioneering Body's Defenses Research

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

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

Their work identified unique "security guards" within the defense system that eliminate malfunctioning immune cells that could attacking the organism.

These findings are now enabling new therapies for immune disorders and cancer.

The winners will divide a prize fund worth 11 million Swedish kronor.

Decisive Discoveries

"The research has been decisive for understanding how the immune system operates and the reason we do not all suffer from severe autoimmune diseases," stated the chair of the Nobel Committee.

This team's research explain a core question: How does the immune system protect us from countless invaders while keeping our healthy cells intact?

Our body's protection system uses immune cells that scan for signs of infection, even viruses and germs it has not met before.

Such cells utilize sensors—called receptors—that are generated by chance in a vast number of combinations.

That gives the defense network the ability to fight a broad range of threats, but the unpredictability of the mechanism inevitably creates immune cells that may target the host.

Security Guards of the Immune System

Researchers previously knew that some of these problematic defense cells were eliminated in the thymus—where white blood cells mature.

The latest award recognizes the discovery of regulatory T-cells—described as the immune system's "security guards"—which patrol the system to neutralize other defenders that assault the body's own tissues.

It is known that this process malfunctions in self-attack conditions such as juvenile diabetes, MS, and RA.

The prize committee added, "The findings have laid the foundation for a new field of investigation and accelerated the creation of innovative therapies, for instance for tumors and immune disorders."

In malignancies, T-regs prevent the body from fighting the growth, so research are focused on reducing their numbers.

In self-attack disorders, experiments are exploring boosting T-reg cells so the body is not under attack. A similar approach could also be useful in minimizing the chances of transplanted organ failure.

Pioneering Experiments

Prof Shimon Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, performed tests on mice that had their thymus removed, leading to self-attack conditions.

He showed that injecting immune cells from healthy mice could prevent the illness—implying there was a mechanism for preventing defenders from attacking the host.

Mary Brunkow, affiliated with the a research center in Seattle, and Fred Ramsdell, now at a biotech firm in a California city, were studying an genetic autoimmune disease in mice and people that led to the discovery of a gene vital for how regulatory T-cells operate.

"The groundbreaking research has uncovered how the immune system is controlled by T-reg cells, stopping it from mistakenly targeting the body's own tissues," said a leading physiology expert.

"This work is a remarkable example of how fundamental biological research can have broad implications for public health."