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This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for revolutionary findings that clarify how the immune system targets harmful infections while sparing the healthy tissues.

Three renowned scientists—Japan's Shimon Sakaguchi and US scientists Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—received this accolade.

The research identified specialized "security guards" within the immune system that eliminate malfunctioning defense cells capable of attacking the body.

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

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

Crucial Discoveries

"The work has been essential for understanding how the immune system functions and why we don't all suffer from serious autoimmune diseases," commented the chair of the award panel.

This trio's research address a fundamental mystery: In what way does the defense system protect us from numerous invaders while leaving our own tissues intact?

Our body's protection system uses immune cells that search for signs of infection, including pathogens and germs it has never encountered.

Such defenders employ sensors—known as recognition units—that are produced randomly in countless variations.

This gives the defense network the ability to fight a wide array of invaders, but the randomness of the mechanism inevitably creates white blood cells that can target the body.

Protectors of the Body

Researchers earlier knew that some of these problematic defense cells were destroyed in the immune organ—the site where immune cells develop.

This year's award honors the identification of T-reg cells—known as the body's "security guards"—which travel through the body to neutralize other defenders that assault the healthy cells.

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

A prize committee added, "These findings have established a new field of investigation and spurred the creation of innovative treatments, for example for tumors and immune disorders."

Regarding cancer, regulatory T-cells prevent the body from fighting the tumor, so studies are aimed at lowering their numbers.

For autoimmune diseases, trials are exploring increasing regulatory T-cells so the organism is no longer under attack. A comparable approach could also be useful in reducing the risks of transplanted organ rejection.

Innovative Experiments

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

He demonstrated that introducing immune cells from healthy mice could prevent the disease—suggesting there was a system for preventing defenders from attacking the host.

Dr. Brunkow, affiliated with the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and Fred Ramsdell, now at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco, were studying an inherited autoimmune disease in rodents and people that led to the discovery of a gene vital for how T-regs function.

"The groundbreaking work has uncovered how the body's defenses is kept in check by regulatory T cells, preventing it from accidentally targeting the body's own tissues," said a leading physiology expert.

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