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This year's prestigious award in medical science has been granted for revolutionary findings that clarify how the body's defense network targets dangerous pathogens while protecting the body's own cells.

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

The research uncovered specialized "sentinels" within the immune system that remove rogue immune cells capable of harming the body.

The findings are now enabling innovative therapies for autoimmune diseases and malignancies.

The winners will share a prize fund worth 11 million Swedish kronor.

Crucial Findings

"The work has been decisive for understanding how the immune system operates and why we do not all develop serious autoimmune diseases," commented the chair of the award panel.

This trio's studies explain a fundamental question: In what way does the immune system protect us from numerous infections while leaving our own tissues intact?

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

Such cells employ detectors—known as recognition units—that are generated by chance in a vast number of combinations.

This provides the immune system the ability to combat a wide array of threats, but the randomness of the process inevitably produces white blood cells that may target the body.

Protectors of the Immune System

Researchers previously knew that a portion of these harmful defense cells were eliminated in the immune organ—where white blood cells mature.

This year's Nobel Prize recognizes the identification of regulatory T-cells—described as the body's "peacekeepers"—which travel through the body to disarm other immune cells that attack the healthy cells.

It is known that this mechanism fails in self-attack conditions such as juvenile diabetes, MS, and RA.

A Nobel panel added, "These discoveries have laid the foundation for a new field of research and spurred the creation of new therapies, for example for cancer and immune disorders."

In cancer, regulatory T-cells block the body from attacking the growth, so research are aimed at reducing their numbers.

For self-attack disorders, trials are exploring boosting T-reg cells so the body is no longer under attack. A comparable approach could also be effective in minimizing the chances of organ transplant failure.

Pioneering Experiments

Professor Shimon Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, conducted tests on mice that had their immune gland removed, causing autoimmune disease.

The researcher demonstrated that introducing defense cells from healthy animals could stop the disease—implying there was a mechanism for blocking immune cells from attacking the body.

Dr. Brunkow, affiliated with the a research center in Seattle, and Dr. Ramsdell, currently at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco, were investigating an genetic autoimmune disease in rodents and people that resulted in the discovery of a genetic factor critical for the way regulatory T-cells function.

"The pioneering research has revealed how the body's defenses is kept in check by regulatory T cells, stopping it from accidentally attacking the body's own tissues," commented a prominent physiology expert.

"This work is a striking illustration of how basic physiological study can have far-reaching consequences for human health."