Nobel Prize Recognizes Pioneering Body's Defenses Research
This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was granted for transformative discoveries that illuminate how the body's defense network attacks harmful pathogens while protecting the healthy tissues.
A trio of esteemed scientists—Japan's Shimon Sakaguchi and American experts Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—share this accolade.
The research identified unique "security guards" within the immune system that remove rogue defense cells that could attacking the organism.
These discoveries are now paving the way for new treatments for immune disorders and malignancies.
These laureates will divide a monetary award valued at 11m Swedish kronor.
Decisive Discoveries
"The work has been decisive for understanding how the body's defenses functions and the reason we do not all suffer from severe autoimmune diseases," stated the head of the Nobel Committee.
This team's studies address a fundamental question: How does the defense system defend us from numerous infections while leaving our healthy cells intact?
Our immune system employs immune cells that scan for signs of disease, including pathogens and bacteria it has never encountered.
Such cells utilize sensors—called receptors—that are generated randomly in countless variations.
That gives the defense network the capacity to fight a wide array of threats, but the randomness of the mechanism unavoidably creates white blood cells that can target the body.
Protectors of the Immune System
Researchers earlier knew that a portion of these problematic white blood cells were eliminated in the thymus—where white blood cells mature.
This year's award honors the discovery of regulatory T-cells—described as the body's "peacekeepers"—which travel through the body to disarm other immune cells that assault the body's own tissues.
It is known that this process malfunctions in autoimmune diseases such as type-1 diabetes, MS, and rheumatoid arthritis.
The Nobel panel added, "The findings have established a new field of investigation and spurred the development of new therapies, for instance for cancer and autoimmune diseases."
Regarding malignancies, regulatory T-cells prevent the body from fighting the tumor, so research are focused on lowering their numbers.
For autoimmune diseases, trials are exploring boosting regulatory T-cells so the organism is no longer being harmed. A comparable method could also be useful in reducing the risks of organ transplant failure.
Pioneering Studies
Prof Sakaguchi, from a Japanese institution, conducted experiments on rodents that had their thymus removed, leading to self-attack conditions.
He showed that introducing defense cells from healthy mice could prevent the disease—suggesting there was a mechanism for blocking immune cells from harming the body.
Mary Brunkow, affiliated with the Institute for Systems Biology in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, currently at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in a California city, were studying an genetic autoimmune disease in mice and people that resulted in the discovery of a genetic factor critical for the way regulatory T-cells function.
"The pioneering research has revealed how the body's defenses is kept in check by T-reg cells, preventing it from mistakenly targeting the body's own tissues," commented a leading biological science expert.
"This research is a striking illustration of how fundamental physiological research can have broad consequences for public health."
