Tasuku Honjo & James P. Allison The Nobel Prize Physiology or Medicine

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Nobel Prize 2018

• The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2018 was awarded jointly to James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo " for their discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation " .
• Medicine is the first of the Nobel Prizes awarded each year .
• Dr. Honjo , 76 , is a longtime professor at Kyoto University , where he did his breakthrough work . Dr. Allison , 70 , is the chairman of immunology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre . Their approach is known as the immune checkpoint theory .
• The Nobel committee said the pair's research which harnesses the body's immune system to attack cancer cells amounted to a " landmark in our fight against cancer . " .
• Allison studied a protein that functions as a brake on the immune system .
• He found that releasing the brake allowed immune cells to attack tumours The discovery led to effective treatments .
• Honjo in parallel discovered a protein on immune cells and illustrated how that too can operate as a brake , though with a different action .
• Allison and Honjo showed how different strategies for inhibiting the brakes on the immune system can be used in the treatment of cancer .
• The immune system normally seeks out and destroys mutated cells , but cancer cells find sophisticated ways to hide from immune attacks , allowing them to thrive and grow .
• Many types of cancer do this by increasing a braking mechanism that keeps immune cells in check . T - cells are deployed to fight infections and cancer , but malignant cells can elude them .
• The T - cells carry molecules called checkpoints , that the body uses to shut the cells down when it needs to stop them . Cancer cells can lock onto those checkpoints , disabling the T - cells and preventing them from fighting the disease .

Major breakthrough of the researches are :

• They discover a new class of drugs that work by switching off the braking mechanism , prompting the immune cells to attack cancer cells.
• Allison studied a receptor called CTLA - 4 that acted as a brake on the activity of T - cells . Drugs meant to enhance the CTLA - 4 receptor were already being studied to treat people with overactive immune systems .
• He wondered what would happen if instead of enhancing the receptor , scientists tried to block its activity .That would cause T - cells to become more active and attack cancer cells
• Honjo studied a different T - cell brake receptor called PD - 1 . Blocking PD - 1 had a similar result causing T - cells to attack cancer Better still , PD - 1 seemed to be able to achieve the feat for a wider range of cancers . PD - 1 therapy is being shown to be effective against lung cancer , renal cancer , skin cancer and lymphoma .
• Today , these cancer treatments are called checkpoint therapies . As with other cancer therapies , there are side effects , as T - cells sometimes attack healthy cells too . But the side effects are usually manageable and researchers are looking for ways to reduce them .

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