Prestigious Prize Recognizes Pioneering Body's Defenses Discoveries

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.

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

Their research identified unique "security guards" within the immune system that remove malfunctioning immune cells capable of attacking the organism.

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

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

Decisive Discoveries

"The research has been essential for understanding how the body's defenses operates and why we do not all suffer from serious autoimmune diseases," commented the head of the award panel.

The trio's research address a fundamental question: How does the defense system protect us from countless infections while leaving our own tissues unharmed?

Our immune system uses white blood cells that scan for indicators of infection, even viruses and bacteria it has never encountered.

These defenders utilize sensors—called recognition units—that are produced randomly in a vast number of variations.

This provides the defense network the ability to fight a wide array of threats, but the unpredictability of the mechanism inevitably produces immune cells that may attack the host.

Protectors of the Body

Researchers earlier understood that a portion of these problematic white blood cells were eliminated in the thymus—where white blood cells mature.

This year's Nobel Prize recognizes the discovery of regulatory T-cells—described as the immune system's "security guards"—which patrol the system to neutralize any defenders that assault the body's own tissues.

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

The prize committee stated, "The findings have established a new field of investigation and accelerated the creation of new treatments, for instance for tumors and autoimmune diseases."

In cancer, T-regs block the body from fighting the growth, so research are aimed at reducing their quantity.

For self-attack disorders, trials are testing boosting T-reg cells so the organism is not being harmed. A comparable approach could also be useful in reducing the chances of transplanted organ rejection.

Pioneering Studies

Professor Shimon Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, performed tests on mice that had their immune gland removed, causing self-attack conditions.

He demonstrated that injecting immune cells from healthy animals could stop the illness—suggesting there was a mechanism for blocking defenders from harming the host.

Dr. Brunkow, affiliated with the a research center in a US city, and Dr. Ramsdell, currently at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco, were investigating an inherited autoimmune disease in mice and humans that resulted in the discovery of a gene critical for the way T-regs function.

"The pioneering research has revealed how the immune system is controlled by T-reg cells, preventing it from accidentally targeting the body's own tissues," said a leading biological science specialist.

"The research is a striking illustration of how basic biological study can have far-reaching implications for human health."