🔗 Share this article

This year's Nobel Prize in medical science was awarded for transformative findings that clarify how the immune system attacks dangerous infections while protecting the body's own cells.

A trio of renowned scientists—from Japan Shimon Sakaguchi and US scientists Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—share this honor.

Their work identified unique "sentinels" within the immune system that eliminate malfunctioning immune cells capable of harming the body.

These findings are now enabling innovative treatments for immune disorders and malignancies.

The winners will divide a prize fund valued at 11m SEK.

Crucial Findings

"The research has been decisive for comprehending how the body's defenses functions and the reason we do not all develop severe self-attack conditions," commented the chair of the Nobel Committee.

This team's research address a core question: In what way does the defense system protect us from countless invaders while keeping our healthy cells unharmed?

Our body's protection system uses white blood cells that search for signs of disease, even pathogens and bacteria it has not met before.

Such cells utilize sensors—called receptors—that are produced randomly in countless variations.

This gives the immune system the capacity to combat a wide array of invaders, but the randomness of the mechanism inevitably creates immune cells that may target the host.

Security Guards of the Body

Researchers previously knew that a portion of these harmful white blood cells were eliminated in the immune organ—the site where white blood cells mature.

The latest award honors the identification of regulatory T-cells—described as the immune system's "security guards"—which travel through the body to disarm other immune cells that assault the healthy cells.

It is known that this mechanism malfunctions in autoimmune diseases such as juvenile diabetes, MS, and RA.

A Nobel panel added, "The findings have laid the foundation for a new field of investigation and accelerated the development of innovative treatments, for example for tumors and immune disorders."

In cancer, regulatory T-cells prevent the body from fighting the growth, so studies are focused on lowering their quantity.

For autoimmune diseases, trials are testing boosting regulatory T-cells so the organism is no longer under attack. A comparable method could also be useful in minimizing the risks of organ transplant failure.

Pioneering Experiments

Prof Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, performed experiments on rodents that had their immune gland removed, leading to self-attack conditions.

He showed that injecting defense cells from healthy mice could stop the disease—implying there was a mechanism for blocking defenders from harming the body.

Mary Brunkow, from the a research center in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, now at a biotech firm in San Francisco, were studying an genetic autoimmune disease in rodents and humans that led to the discovery of a genetic factor vital for how T-regs function.

"Their groundbreaking work has revealed how the immune system is kept in check by T-reg cells, preventing it from accidentally attacking the healthy cells," said a leading physiology specialist.

"The work is a remarkable illustration of how basic physiological research can have far-reaching consequences for human health."