The discoveries of the American researchers Mary E. Brouunow and Fred Ramsdell and Japanese Shimon Sakaguchi were considered decisive to understand the functioning of the immune system. The American researchers Mary E. Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell and the Japanese Shimon Sakaguchi won the Nobel Medical and Physiology prize for several discoveries relating to peripheral immune tolerance, which prevents the immune system from causing damage to the body. The announcement was made on Monday (06/10) by the Secretary General of the Nobel Assembly, Thomas Perlmann, in Stockholm, Sweden.
According to the organization, the graduates identified what they called the “safety guards” of the immune system, a regulatory T cells, a mechanism that inhibits other immunological cells to attack their body, as occurs in autoimmune diseases.
Every day the immune system protects the body from thousands of different microorganisms. Many, however, have developed similarities with human cells as a camouflage, explains the Nobel Prize Committee. The search for the three scientists has identified the way in which the system determines what to attack and what to defend, opening the foundations for a new research field.
“Their discoveries have been decisive for our understanding of how the immune system works and because not everything we develop serious autoimmune diseases,” said Olle Kämpi, president of the Nobel Committee.
Because the discovery is important
In the 80s and 90s, Shimon Sakaguchi developed a series of studies to understand how the human body would have been able to identify invading bodies.
The immune system has superimposed mechanisms to detect and fight bacteria, viruses and other harmful agents. The T cells are trained to identify these invaders. If some of them leave control and reach their body fabrics, they must be eliminated in the thyme, a process called central tolerance.
However, Sakaguchi has identified an additional form in which the body maintains the system under control, peripheral immune tolerance, revealing a new subtype of T cells, now called regulatory lymphocytes or TRG.
The confirmation of the existence of the Treg advanced in 2001, when Brukow and Ramsdell discovered a mutation caused in a gene called Foxp3, which also plays a role in a rare autoimmune disease,
Two years later, Sakaguchi connected discoveries showing that the Foxp3 gene controls the development of these trays.
The recognition of this type of action has led to different progress in immune studies, also contributing to a new understanding of the treatment of autoimmune diseases and to the way the body reacts to inflammation or infection processes.
“Their results led to the development of potential medical treatments that are now evaluated in clinical studies. Hope is able to treat or treat autoimmune diseases, provide more effective cancer treatments and prevent serious complications after stem cell transplants,” says the Nobel prizes committee.
Prize
The Nobel will be delivered to the winners of Stockholm on 10 December, the date of the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, creator of the prize. They should receive a cash prize of about $ 1.2 million.
Since 1901, 229 people have received the Nobel Medical Nobel. No winner has been assigned more than once.
In 2024, the award went to the Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for the discovery of the microna, a new class of RNA molecules that play a crucial role in genetic regulation.
The discovery is considered a fundamental principle to explain how the genetic activity of multicellular organisms is regulated, including human beings. In other words, these micromolecules help cells from the muscles, the intestine and the different types of nerve cells perform their specific functions.
In 2023, Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman received the Developed RNA Messenger Technology Award that opened the road to Pfizer/Biotech and Modern Covid-1 vaccines. The previous year, the Swedish disadvantaged Pääbo won with the sequencing of the Neanderthal genome and the creation of Paleogenomica.
Already in 2021, the Americans David Julius and Burning Patapoutian won the Nobel Prize for Discoveries on heat receptors and touch the skin.
The Nobel Prize for Medicine is the first to be announced among the honors for researchers, scientists, writers and personality in six categories. Tuesday will be the turn of the Nobel Physics; Wednesday, chemistry; Thursday, literature. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday and the economy next Monday.
GQ/CN (Reuters, APF, OTS)
Source: Terra
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