🔗 Share this article

This year's Nobel Prize in medical science was granted for transformative findings that clarify how the body's defense network attacks harmful pathogens while protecting the body's own cells.

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

Their work uncovered specialized "sentinels" within the defense system that eliminate rogue immune cells that could harming the body.

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

The winners will share a monetary award valued at 11 million Swedish kronor.

Decisive Findings

"Their work has been essential for understanding how the immune system functions and the reason we don't all develop severe self-attack conditions," commented the chair of the award panel.

This trio's studies address a fundamental question: In what way does the defense system defend us from numerous infections while keeping our healthy cells intact?

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

Such cells employ detectors—called receptors—that are generated randomly in countless variations.

This provides the defense network the capacity to combat a wide array of invaders, but the unpredictability of the mechanism unavoidably creates white blood cells that may attack the body.

Protectors of the Immune System

Researchers previously knew that a portion of these problematic defense cells were destroyed in the thymus—the site where white blood cells develop.

The latest award recognizes the discovery of regulatory T-cells—known as the body's "security guards"—which patrol the body to disarm other immune cells that assault the healthy cells.

We know that this process malfunctions in self-attack conditions such as type-1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and RA.

The Nobel panel added, "These discoveries have laid the foundation for a new field of investigation and accelerated the development of new treatments, for example for cancer and immune disorders."

Regarding malignancies, regulatory T-cells block the system from attacking the tumor, so studies are aimed at lowering their numbers.

For autoimmune diseases, experiments are exploring increasing T-reg cells so the body is not under attack. A similar approach could also be effective in minimizing the chances of transplanted organ failure.

Pioneering Studies

Professor Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, conducted experiments on mice that had their thymus extracted, leading to autoimmune disease.

He showed that injecting defense cells from other animals could prevent the illness—suggesting there was a mechanism for preventing defenders from harming the host.

Mary Brunkow, affiliated with the a research center in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, currently at a biotech firm in San Francisco, were investigating an inherited autoimmune disease in mice and people that led to the identification of a genetic factor critical for how regulatory T-cells operate.

"The pioneering work has uncovered how the body's defenses is kept in check by T-reg cells, stopping it from accidentally targeting the healthy cells," commented a leading biological science expert.

"The work is a remarkable example of how fundamental biological research can have broad consequences for public health."