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

A trio of renowned researchers—Japan's Prof. Sakaguchi and American experts Dr. Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—received this honor.

The work identified specialized "sentinels" within the defense system that eliminate malfunctioning defense cells that could harming the organism.

The discoveries are now paving the way for innovative therapies for autoimmune diseases and cancer.

The laureates will share a monetary award worth 11 million Swedish kronor.

Decisive Findings

"Their work has been essential for understanding how the immune system operates and why we do not all suffer from serious autoimmune diseases," stated the chair of the Nobel Committee.

The team's research address a core mystery: How does the defense system defend us from numerous infections while keeping our own tissues unharmed?

Our body's protection system employs white blood cells that scan for signs of disease, even pathogens and germs it has not met before.

These cells utilize sensors—called recognition units—that are generated by chance in a vast number of variations.

That gives the immune system the ability to fight a broad range of invaders, but the unpredictability of the mechanism unavoidably produces immune cells that may target the host.

Security Guards of the Immune System

Researchers earlier knew that a portion of these harmful white blood cells were eliminated in the thymus—where white blood cells develop.

The latest Nobel Prize honors the identification of regulatory T-cells—described as the body's "peacekeepers"—which patrol the system to neutralize any immune cells that assault the healthy cells.

We know that this process fails in self-attack conditions such as juvenile diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and RA.

A Nobel panel stated, "The discoveries have laid the foundation for a new field of investigation and accelerated the development of new treatments, for example for cancer and immune disorders."

In malignancies, T-regs prevent the body from fighting the tumor, so studies are aimed at reducing their numbers.

In autoimmune diseases, trials are testing boosting T-reg cells so the organism is not being harmed. A similar method could also be useful in reducing the chances of organ transplant failure.

Pioneering Experiments

Professor Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, conducted experiments on rodents that had their thymus extracted, causing self-attack conditions.

He demonstrated that introducing defense cells from healthy mice could prevent the illness—implying there was a mechanism for blocking immune cells from attacking the body.

Dr. Brunkow, from the Institute for Systems Biology in a US city, and Dr. Ramsdell, now at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco, were studying an inherited immune disorder in rodents and people that resulted in the identification of a genetic factor critical for the way regulatory T-cells operate.

"Their groundbreaking research has revealed how the immune system is controlled by T-reg cells, stopping it from accidentally targeting the body's own tissues," commented a prominent physiology specialist.

"The work is a striking illustration of how basic physiological research can have broad implications for public health."