Nobel Award Recognizes Groundbreaking Immune System Research

The Nobel Prize in medical science was granted for revolutionary findings that illuminate how the body's defense network attacks harmful infections while protecting the healthy tissues.

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

Their research identified specialized "security guards" within the defense system that eliminate rogue defense cells that could harming the organism.

These discoveries are now paving the way for new treatments for autoimmune diseases and malignancies.

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

Crucial Discoveries

"Their research has been essential for understanding how the immune system operates and why we do not all develop severe autoimmune diseases," commented the chair of the award panel.

The team's research address a fundamental mystery: In what way does the defense system protect us from countless invaders while keeping our own tissues intact?

The immune system employs white blood cells that search for indicators of infection, including viruses and bacteria it has never encountered.

Such defenders employ sensors—known as receptors—that are generated randomly in countless combinations.

That provides the defense network the ability to fight a broad range of invaders, but the randomness of the mechanism inevitably produces white blood cells that can target the host.

Security Guards of the Body

Researchers previously understood that some of these harmful white blood cells were destroyed in the immune organ—the site where white blood cells mature.

This year's Nobel Prize honors the identification of regulatory T-cells—described as the immune system's "peacekeepers"—which travel through the system to neutralize any defenders that assault the body's own tissues.

We know that this mechanism fails in autoimmune diseases such as type-1 diabetes, MS, and rheumatoid arthritis.

The prize committee added, "These discoveries have laid the foundation for a novel area of investigation and accelerated the creation of new treatments, for instance for cancer and autoimmune diseases."

In cancer, regulatory T-cells prevent the body from attacking the growth, so studies are aimed at lowering their numbers.

For autoimmune diseases, trials are testing boosting T-reg cells so the body is not being harmed. A comparable approach could also be useful in reducing the chances of organ transplant failure.

Innovative Experiments

Prof Shimon Sakaguchi, from a Japanese institution, conducted experiments on mice that had their thymus extracted, causing autoimmune disease.

He demonstrated that injecting immune cells from other animals could prevent the disease—implying there was a mechanism for preventing immune cells from attacking the body.

Mary Brunkow, affiliated with the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and Fred Ramsdell, now at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in a California city, were studying an inherited immune disorder in rodents and people that led to the discovery of a gene vital for the way regulatory T-cells operate.

"Their groundbreaking research has uncovered how the immune system is kept in check by T-reg cells, preventing it from accidentally targeting the body's own tissues," said a prominent biological science specialist.

"This research is a striking illustration of how basic physiological research can have far-reaching consequences for public health."