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This year's prestigious award in medical science was granted for revolutionary findings that illuminate how the body's defense network targets dangerous infections while protecting the body's own cells.

A trio of esteemed scientists—from Japan Prof. Sakaguchi and American scientists Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—received this accolade.

The research identified specialized "sentinels" within the immune system that remove rogue defense cells that could attacking the organism.

These discoveries are now paving the way for innovative treatments for autoimmune diseases and cancer.

The winners will share a monetary award worth 11m Swedish kronor.

Decisive Discoveries

"The research has been decisive for understanding how the body's defenses operates and why we do not all suffer from severe self-attack conditions," commented the head of the Nobel Committee.

The team's studies address a core question: How does the defense system defend us from countless infections while keeping our own tissues intact?

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

These cells employ sensors—known as recognition units—that are generated randomly in countless variations.

That provides the immune system the ability to fight a broad range of threats, but the unpredictability of the mechanism inevitably produces immune cells that may target the body.

Security Guards of the Body

Scientists earlier knew that a portion of these problematic white blood cells were destroyed in the immune organ—the site where immune cells develop.

The latest award honors the identification of regulatory T-cells—described as the body's "security guards"—which travel through the system to neutralize other defenders that assault the healthy cells.

It is known that this mechanism fails in autoimmune diseases such as type-1 diabetes, MS, and RA.

The Nobel panel stated, "These discoveries have laid the foundation for a new field of investigation and accelerated the creation of innovative treatments, for instance for cancer and autoimmune diseases."

Regarding cancer, T-regs prevent the body from fighting the growth, so studies are focused on lowering their numbers.

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

Innovative Experiments

Prof Shimon Sakaguchi, from a Japanese institution, performed tests on rodents that had their immune gland removed, leading to autoimmune disease.

He demonstrated that injecting immune cells from other animals could stop the disease—implying there was a system for preventing immune cells from harming the host.

Mary Brunkow, affiliated with the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and Dr. Ramsdell, currently at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in a California city, were studying an inherited autoimmune disease in mice and people that led to the discovery of a gene vital for the way regulatory T-cells function.

"The pioneering research has revealed how the immune system is kept in check by T-reg cells, stopping it from accidentally targeting the healthy cells," said a prominent biological science specialist.

"This research is a striking example of how basic biological research can have broad implications for human health."