Ever wondered what keeps your immune system in check when it starts misbehaving? 

This week on Show Me the Science, Professor Luke O’Neill explains the world of regulatory T cells—the immune system’s very own “military police.”  

These tiny guardians stop other cells from attacking the body, helping prevent autoimmune diseases and keeping us healthy. 

“The Nobel Prize this year has been given to three scientists who discovered a key regulatory process that suppresses your immune system from attacking your own tissues. 

“And they're called regulatory T-cells. 

“it was a big discovery that was made 30 years ago and it's a key part of any work of an immunologist because it turns out the immune system has various breaks to stop it going out of control and this is a master break that stops the immune system from going ballistic, shall we say.” 

Simple to understand

Although it may sound difficult to understand, Prof O’Neill said that “it's simple enough at one level.” 

“Your immune system is very, very powerful. 

“It's got tremendous weapons to fire at bacteria and viruses and all sorts. 

“we know it attacks our own tissues. And when it does that, it causes what we call autoimmune diseases. 

“Shimon comes along in the 90s, and he discovers a key cell type that suppresses that autoimmune process. 

And he calls them regulatory T cells because they regulate the immune system.” 

Rogue

Prof O Neill uses a simple analogy to describe this process which won two Americans, Mary Brunko and Fred Ramsdell, and a Japanese scientist called Shimon Sakaguchi the coveted Nobel prize. 

“Imagine your immune system like an army, it's fighting the enemy. 

“Sometimes that army goes rogue and begins to attack your own tissues. 

“These are the military police.” 

Breakthroughs

According to Prof O’Neill, the discovery of regulatory T cells has led to breakthroughs in the suppression of auto-immune diseases such as cancer. 

“There are 200 clinical trials running at the moment in humans involving regulatory t cells either to boost them to suppress autoimmune disease or to turn them off to boost anti-cancer immunity. 

“My own lab has a project on fox p3 we're trying to deliver fox p3 into the body into t cells get them to turn into regulatory t cells we're using the rna technology actually that was used in the vaccines. 

“We're using these lipid nanoparticles to try and boost them. 

“Because you can imagine if you can inject FoxP3 into someone, that might kick them off. 

“Many labs work on these, not just us because we know they're so important. 

“The types of diseases would be multiple sclerosis, Crohn's, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, they're all autoimmune so again people are testing this now. 

“So again lots of trials are running, lots of optimism.”