2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology

Written Description
Student's Name:
Institution Affiliation
Mini-review 1: James P.Allison and Tasuku Honju's 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to James P.Allison, an American immunologist, and Tasuku Honju, a Japanese immunologist, for their incredible discovery of cancer therapy revolving around inhibition of negative immune regulation. James and Tasaku's scientific feat refreshes a fight against the cancer pandemic, which was continued to cause morbidity, mortality, and socioeconomic burden. James P. Allison demonstrated protein that protein functioned as a brake on the immune system and capitalized on the capacity to unleash the brake, leading to immune cells attack tumors. He then developed this concept into a brand new approach for treating patients. Equally, Tasuku Honjo discovered a protein expressed on, which he proved that that protein could operate as a brake, but with a different mechanism of action. Therapies founded on these discoveries present a strikingly new way of fighting cancer or tumor. Allison and Honjo demonstrated diverse approaches to inhibiting the brakes on the immune system can be used to treat cancer.
The concept of activating the immune system to attack the tumor cells gained prominence in the late 19th and 20th centuries with modest effects owing to insufficient knowledge to develop new against cancer (Allison, 2018). The immune system is bestowed with the capacity to identify "self" and "non-self." Thus, this capacity allows the immune system to identify and attack "non-self," such as bacteria and viruses. T cells have receptors that bind to the "non-self," which, in turn, triggers the activation of the immune system. However, various scientists did found other proteins which function as a brake to deter extreme activation of the immune system that can lead to the autoimmune destruction of the healthy cells and tissue
Some of the core cancers arising from the compromised immune system include non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which is linked to Epstein-viral infection, and Kaposi sarcoma, among others. More often, it appears that cancers develop in immune-compromised patients due to the consequences of induced immunosuppression. Immunosuppression in patients is facilitated by T-Lymphocyte Associated Antigen-4(CTLA-4) and Programmed Death-1(PD-1), which are immune-modulatory receptors expressed by T cells. The monoclonal antibodies targeting CTLA- and or PD-1 have led to substantial clinical benefits, including increased durability of responses among patients with diverse malignancies (Gubin et al., 2014). However, the primary problem lies in observing those tumor antigens' identities as targets of T cells activated by checkpoint blockade immunotherapy (Gubin et al., 2014). James P. Allison was one of the many scientists who found out that CTLA-4, a T-cell protein, functions as a brake on T cells. Furthermore, he developed an antibody that can bind with CTLA-4 and block its function as a brake, leading to the immune system's release to attack cancer cells. Dr. Allison and others, including Dr. Lloyd Old, provided leadership and convinced various scientists, oncologists, and pharmaceutical firms to invest in immune‐based approache...