🔗 Share this article

The prestigious award in medical science has been granted for revolutionary discoveries that clarify how the body's defense network attacks harmful infections while sparing the healthy tissues.

Three renowned scientists—Japan's Prof. Sakaguchi and American experts Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—share this honor.

The research uncovered unique "security guards" within the immune system that eliminate rogue immune cells that could attacking the body.

The findings are now paving the way for new therapies for autoimmune diseases and malignancies.

The winners will share a prize fund worth 11m SEK.

Crucial Findings

"Their work has been decisive for understanding how the immune system operates and why we do not all develop serious self-attack conditions," commented the head of the award panel.

The team's research explain a core mystery: How does the immune system protect us from numerous infections while keeping our own tissues unharmed?

The body's protection system uses white blood cells that search for signs of infection, even viruses and bacteria it has not met before.

These cells employ detectors—called receptors—that are produced by chance in a vast number of variations.

This gives the immune system the ability to combat a broad range of threats, but the unpredictability of the mechanism unavoidably creates immune cells that may target the body.

Security Guards of the Immune System

Scientists earlier understood that some of these harmful defense cells were eliminated in the thymus—the site where white blood cells mature.

This year's award recognizes the identification of regulatory T-cells—known as the body's "peacekeepers"—which travel through 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 type-1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and RA.

A prize committee stated, "These discoveries have laid the foundation for a new field of investigation and accelerated the development of innovative treatments, for example for cancer and autoimmune diseases."

In malignancies, T-regs block the system from attacking the growth, so studies are aimed at lowering their numbers.

For self-attack disorders, experiments are testing boosting 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 rejection.

Innovative Experiments

Prof Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, performed experiments on mice that had their thymus removed, leading to self-attack conditions.

The researcher showed that introducing defense cells from healthy animals could prevent the disease—suggesting there was a mechanism for blocking defenders from harming the body.

Mary Brunkow, from the a research center in Seattle, and Fred Ramsdell, now at a biotech firm in San Francisco, were studying an genetic autoimmune disease in rodents and humans that led to the discovery of a genetic factor vital for the way T-regs operate.

"The groundbreaking research has uncovered how the immune system is controlled by T-reg cells, preventing it from mistakenly targeting the body's own tissues," commented a leading biological science expert.

"The research is a striking illustration of how basic biological research can have broad consequences for human health."