Nobel Prize Honors Pioneering Body's Defenses Research

This year's prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded for transformative findings that illuminate how the body's defense network attacks harmful pathogens while protecting the body's own cells.

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

Their research uncovered unique "security guards" within the defense system that remove malfunctioning immune cells that could attacking the organism.

The discoveries are now enabling new therapies for immune disorders and malignancies.

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

Decisive Findings

"The research has been decisive for understanding how the body's defenses operates and why we do not all develop severe autoimmune diseases," stated the head of the Nobel Committee.

The trio's research address a core mystery: How does the defense system defend us from countless infections while leaving our healthy cells unharmed?

Our body's protection system uses white blood cells that search for signs of disease, including viruses and germs it has never encountered.

Such cells utilize detectors—known as recognition units—that are generated randomly in countless combinations.

That gives the defense network the ability to fight a broad range of threats, but the randomness of the process unavoidably produces immune cells that may attack the body.

Security Guards of the Immune System

Scientists previously knew that a portion of these harmful white blood cells were destroyed in the thymus—the site where white blood cells mature.

This year's award honors the discovery of T-reg cells—described as the immune system's "peacekeepers"—which patrol the system to disarm any defenders that assault the healthy cells.

We know that this mechanism fails in autoimmune diseases such as juvenile diabetes, MS, and rheumatoid arthritis.

A Nobel panel added, "The discoveries have established a new field of research and spurred the development of new therapies, for example for cancer and immune disorders."

Regarding cancer, T-regs prevent the system from fighting the growth, so research are aimed at lowering their numbers.

In autoimmune diseases, experiments are testing boosting T-reg cells so the body is not under attack. A similar method could also be useful in minimizing the chances of organ transplant rejection.

Innovative Studies

Prof Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, performed experiments on rodents that had their thymus extracted, causing autoimmune disease.

He demonstrated that injecting defense cells from healthy mice could prevent the illness—suggesting there was a system for preventing immune cells from attacking the body.

Dr. Brunkow, from the a research center in Seattle, and Fred Ramsdell, currently at a biotech firm in San Francisco, were investigating an inherited autoimmune disease in mice and humans that led to the discovery of a gene critical for the way regulatory T-cells function.

"The pioneering work has revealed how the body's defenses is controlled by T-reg cells, preventing it from accidentally targeting the healthy cells," commented a prominent biological science specialist.

"The research is a remarkable example of how basic physiological study can have broad implications for public health."