2025 NOBEL PRIZE IN MEDICINE, Pg13.

Key Highlights:

• The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Shimon Sakaguchi, Mary E. Brunkow, and Frederick Ramsdell for their discoveries on peripheral immune tolerance.
• Sakaguchi discovered regulatory T cells in 1995, which prevent other T cells from attacking the body's own cells.
• Brunkow and Ramsdell identified the FOXP3 gene in 2001, responsible for autoimmunity in scurfy mice and the human disease IPEX.
• Their work is essential for understanding immune system function and developing therapies for cancers and autoimmune diseases.

Detailed Insights:

• Central tolerance, a process where T cells recognizing the body's own proteins are eliminated, was already known in the 1980s.
• Sakaguchi's experiments involving the removal of the thymus in newborn mice led to the discovery of regulatory T cells.
• Regulatory T cells act as a "police" force, preventing other T cells from attacking the body's own cells, a process known as peripheral tolerance.
• The FOXP3 gene controls the development of regulatory T cells, and its discovery helped link genetic mutations to autoimmune conditions.
• Cancer tumors can attract regulatory T cells, protecting themselves from other T cells, which is an obstacle for Car-T cell therapy.
• Immunotherapies work by reducing the action of regulatory T cells to make cancer treatments more effective, but can sometimes lead to autoimmune conditions.
• Clinical trials are underway to test therapies that promote the formation of more regulatory T cells in patients with autoimmune conditions and to prevent organ rejection after transplant.

Key Concepts Involved:

• T cells: A type of white blood cell that helps the body fight off infections.
• Autoimmune disease: A condition in which the body's immune system attacks its own cells.
• Peripheral immune tolerance: The process by which regulatory T cells protect the body from autoimmune attacks.
• Regulatory T cells: A class of T cells that prevent other T cells from attacking the body's own cells.