The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for transformative discoveries that clarify how the body's defense network attacks dangerous infections while sparing the body's own cells.
Three renowned researchers—from Japan Shimon Sakaguchi and American scientists Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—share this honor.
The research uncovered specialized "sentinels" within the defense system that remove rogue defense cells that could harming the body.
The findings are now enabling innovative therapies for autoimmune diseases and malignancies.
The winners will share a monetary award valued at 11m SEK.
"Their work has been essential for understanding how the body's defenses operates and why we don't all develop severe self-attack conditions," stated the chair of the award panel.
This team's studies address a core mystery: How does the defense system defend us from countless infections while keeping our own tissues intact?
Our body's protection system uses white blood cells that search for signs of disease, even viruses and germs it has never encountered.
Such defenders utilize sensors—known as receptors—that are produced randomly in countless variations.
This provides the immune system the capacity to combat a wide array of invaders, but the unpredictability of the mechanism unavoidably creates white blood cells that can target the body.
Researchers previously knew that a portion of these problematic white blood cells were destroyed in the thymus—the site where white blood cells develop.
The latest award honors the identification of T-reg cells—described as the body's "security guards"—which patrol the body to neutralize any defenders that attack the body's own tissues.
We know that this mechanism fails in autoimmune diseases such as type-1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and RA.
The prize committee stated, "The discoveries have laid the foundation for a novel area of research and spurred the development of innovative treatments, for example for tumors and immune disorders."
Regarding cancer, T-regs prevent the body from attacking the tumor, so research are focused on reducing their quantity.
In self-attack disorders, trials are exploring increasing T-reg cells so the body is no longer being harmed. A comparable approach could also be effective in minimizing the chances of organ transplant failure.
Professor Shimon Sakaguchi, of a Japanese institution, performed experiments on mice that had their immune gland removed, causing autoimmune disease.
The researcher demonstrated that injecting immune cells from other mice could stop the disease—implying there was a system for preventing defenders from attacking the host.
Mary Brunkow, affiliated with the Institute for Systems Biology in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, now at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco, were investigating an genetic immune disorder in mice and people that resulted in the discovery of a gene critical for how regulatory T-cells function.
"The pioneering work has uncovered how the body's defenses is kept in check by regulatory T cells, preventing it from accidentally attacking the healthy cells," commented a leading biological science expert.
"This work is a striking illustration of how basic biological study can have broad implications for human health."
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