Editorial

Our hearty congratulations to Dr. Jules A  Hoffmann and Bruce A Beutler and salute and prayers for Dr. Ralph M. Steinman. Dr. Steinman died just before the announcement of the prize but after the selection. The Nobel committee made a great gesture by giving half the prize amount to Steinman's estate. This is a departure from the normal convention of the Nobel committee who do not award the prize posthumously."

The outline of the work done by the Nobel prize winners is given below. Innate immunity is the first line of defence against pathogens which cause infection. When a pathogen enters a body, it should be recognized as a foreign body. Then the human body mounts an immune response that destroys the pathogen.

Hoffmann, working with fruit flies, identified a gene called Toll, that was necessary for immunity. Thanks to this gene, the body becomes aware of the intruder and then destroys this pathogen. In his search for a receptor, Beutler was able to isolate the bacterial product, lipo-polysaccharide (LPS) whose function was similar to that of Toll.

Steinman was working on adaptive immunity to enable the body to recognize the pathogens it has seen before, allowing a more rapid activation of the immune system. (Is this not similar to vaccination for various diseases?

Steinman discovered the dendritic cell, an important intermediary in the development of adaptive immunity. Steinman and co-workers showed that dendritic cells capture and present antigens and activate T-cells powerfully. These cells also play an important role in the control of tolerance and immunity by which the body differentiates "self" from others. This laid the foundation for the development of the vaccine to combat cancer. Steinman himself was a cancer patient and was treated by the vaccine developed by himself. At least he was alive up to the time of selection. The grateful world will always remember him.