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The Nobel Prize in medical science was granted for revolutionary discoveries that clarify how the body's defense network targets dangerous pathogens while sparing the healthy tissues.

A trio of esteemed researchers—Japan's Shimon Sakaguchi and American scientists Mary Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—share this honor.

The research uncovered specialized "sentinels" within the defense system that remove malfunctioning defense cells capable of harming the organism.

These findings are now paving the way for innovative treatments for autoimmune diseases and malignancies.

These laureates will divide a monetary award worth 11m SEK.

Crucial Discoveries

"The research has been decisive for understanding how the body's defenses functions and the reason we do not all develop serious autoimmune diseases," commented the chair of the Nobel Committee.

This team's studies address a core mystery: In what way does the immune system defend us from countless infections while keeping our own tissues intact?

Our body's protection system uses immune cells that search for indicators of infection, even viruses and bacteria it has never encountered.

These defenders employ detectors—known as receptors—that are generated randomly in a vast number of variations.

That gives the defense network the ability to combat a broad range of threats, but the randomness of the mechanism inevitably creates white blood cells that may attack the body.

Security Guards of the Immune System

Researchers previously understood that some of these problematic white blood cells were eliminated in the thymus—the site where white blood cells develop.

This year's award honors the discovery of T-reg cells—known as the body's "security guards"—which patrol the body to neutralize any immune cells that attack the healthy cells.

It is known that this mechanism fails in self-attack conditions such as juvenile diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

The prize committee stated, "The discoveries have established a novel area of investigation and spurred the development of innovative treatments, for example for tumors and autoimmune diseases."

In cancer, regulatory T-cells block the body from attacking the tumor, so research are focused on lowering their quantity.

In autoimmune diseases, trials are testing increasing regulatory T-cells so the body is not under attack. A comparable method could also be useful in minimizing the chances of transplanted organ failure.

Pioneering Experiments

Professor Shimon Sakaguchi, of Osaka University, performed experiments on rodents that had their thymus removed, leading to self-attack conditions.

He demonstrated that injecting immune cells from healthy animals could stop the illness—implying there was a system for blocking defenders from harming the host.

Dr. Brunkow, from the a research center in Seattle, and Fred Ramsdell, now at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in a California city, were investigating an genetic immune disorder in mice and people that led to the identification of a gene vital for the way T-regs function.

"The groundbreaking work has uncovered how the immune system is kept in check by regulatory T cells, stopping it from accidentally targeting the body's own tissues," said a prominent biological science expert.

"The work is a striking example of how fundamental biological research can have broad implications for public health."