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This year's Nobel Prize in medical science was granted for revolutionary findings that illuminate how the body's defense network targets harmful infections while sparing the healthy tissues.

Three esteemed researchers—from Japan Shimon Sakaguchi and US scientists Dr. Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—received this accolade.

Their work identified unique "security guards" within the immune system that eliminate rogue immune cells capable of attacking the organism.

The findings are now enabling new therapies for immune disorders and malignancies.

These laureates will share a monetary award valued at 11 million SEK.

Crucial Discoveries

"The work has been essential for understanding how the body's defenses operates and why we do not all develop severe self-attack conditions," commented the chair of the award panel.

The team's research explain a fundamental question: In what way does the defense system protect us from countless infections while keeping our healthy cells intact?

Our immune system employs immune cells that search for indicators of disease, even viruses and bacteria it has never encountered.

Such cells employ sensors—known as receptors—that are generated randomly in countless variations.

That gives the defense network the capacity to combat a broad range of invaders, but the unpredictability of the mechanism inevitably produces white blood cells that may attack the host.

Protectors of the Immune System

Scientists previously understood that some of these problematic defense cells were destroyed in the immune organ—the site where white blood cells mature.

The latest award honors the identification of T-reg cells—known as the body's "security guards"—which patrol the system to neutralize any defenders that attack the body's own tissues.

We know that this process malfunctions in autoimmune diseases such as juvenile diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

The prize committee added, "The discoveries have laid the foundation for a new field of investigation and accelerated the creation of new therapies, for instance for cancer and autoimmune diseases."

Regarding malignancies, T-regs prevent the body from fighting the growth, so research are aimed at reducing their numbers.

In autoimmune diseases, experiments are testing increasing regulatory T-cells so the organism is not being harmed. A comparable approach could also be useful in minimizing the risks of transplanted organ rejection.

Pioneering Experiments

Prof Shimon Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, conducted experiments on rodents that had their immune gland extracted, leading to self-attack conditions.

He demonstrated that introducing defense cells from other animals could stop the illness—implying there was a system for preventing immune cells from attacking the host.

Dr. Brunkow, affiliated with the a research center in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, now at a biotech firm in a California city, were studying an inherited autoimmune disease in mice and people that resulted in the discovery of a genetic factor vital for the way T-regs operate.

"The pioneering work has revealed how the immune system is controlled by regulatory T cells, preventing it from accidentally attacking the body's own tissues," said a leading biological science expert.

"This work is a remarkable illustration of how basic biological research can have broad consequences for public health."