2018年诺贝尔生理学或医学奖：James P Allison 和Tasuku Honjo
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2018年诺贝尔生理学或医学奖颁给了James P Allison 和Tasuku Honjo，表彰他们发现了抑制负免疫调节的癌症疗法。
Cancer kills millions of people every year and is one of humanity’s greatest health challenges. By stimulating the inherent ability of our immune system to attack tumor cells this year’s Nobel Laureates have established an entirely new principle for cancer therapy. James P. Allison studied a known protein that functions as a brake on the immune system. He realized the potential of releasing the brake and thereby unleashing our immune cells to attack tumors. He then developed this concept into a brand new approach for treating patients. In parallel, Tasuku Honjo discovered a protein on immune cells and, after careful exploration of its function, eventually revealed that it also operates as a brake, but with a different mechanism of action. Therapies based on his discovery proved to be strikingly effective in the fight against cancer. Allison and Honjo showed how different strategies for inhibiting the brakes on the immune system can be used in the treatment of cancer. The seminal discoveries by the two Laureates constitute a landmark in our fight against cancer.
The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded to James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo for their discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation. Already 150 years ago attempts were made to use infectious agents to stimulate immune responses to cancer. Since then many seminal discoveries in the fields of basic immunology and tumor biology, including some awarded with the Nobel Prize, enabled a deeper understanding of such processes. In 1996, James P. Allison and coworkers used this accumulated knowledge to demonstrate that antibodies directed against a cell surface molecule on T cells, CTLA-4, is capable of unleashing an immune response, which cured mice from tumors. Prior to this, in the laboratory of Tasuku Honjo, a new molecule named PD-1 had been identified. Similar to CTLA-4, PD-1 also serves as a brake, which can prevent T cells from killing cancer cells. With the aid of biomedical companies Allison succeeded in developing the new concept with anti-CTLA-4 into clinical therapy for patients with advanced forms of melanoma. The use of antibodies directed against PD-1 and its ligand PD-L1 has now been approved for several cancer forms and this treatment is even more efficacious. The best clinical results have so far been obtained by combining treatment with anti-CTLA-4 and antiPD-1. These antibodies are known as immune checkpoint inhibitors and the seminal discoveries by the two laureates have added a new pillar for the treatment of cancer.
更多查看http://www.nobelprizemedicine.org/
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