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The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was granted for revolutionary discoveries that illuminate how the immune system targets harmful infections while sparing the body's own cells.

A trio of esteemed scientists—from Japan Shimon Sakaguchi and US scientists Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—received this honor.

The work uncovered unique "sentinels" within the immune system that remove rogue defense cells that could attacking the organism.

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

The laureates will divide a prize fund worth 11m SEK.

Decisive Findings

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

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

The body's protection system uses immune cells that scan for indicators of infection, including viruses and bacteria it has not met before.

These cells employ sensors—known as recognition units—that are generated by chance in countless combinations.

That provides the immune system the capacity to combat a broad range of threats, but the unpredictability of the process unavoidably produces immune cells that may attack the host.

Security Guards of the Body

Scientists earlier understood that a portion of these harmful white blood cells were destroyed in the thymus—where immune cells mature.

This year's award honors the discovery of regulatory T-cells—described as the immune system's "security guards"—which travel through the body to neutralize other defenders that assault the body's own tissues.

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

A prize committee added, "The discoveries have laid the foundation for a new field of investigation and spurred the creation of innovative therapies, for example for cancer and immune disorders."

Regarding cancer, T-regs prevent the system from attacking the tumor, so studies are focused on reducing their numbers.

In autoimmune diseases, experiments are testing boosting T-reg cells so the body is not under attack. A comparable approach could also be effective in minimizing the chances of organ transplant failure.

Pioneering Studies

Prof Shimon Sakaguchi, of a Japanese institution, performed tests on mice that had their immune gland extracted, causing self-attack conditions.

The researcher showed that introducing immune cells from healthy mice could stop the disease—suggesting there was a system for preventing immune cells from attacking the host.

Dr. Brunkow, from the a research center in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, currently at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco, were studying an genetic autoimmune disease in mice and people that resulted in the identification of a gene vital for the way T-regs operate.

"The pioneering research has revealed how the immune system is kept in check by T-reg cells, stopping it from mistakenly attacking the healthy cells," commented a leading physiology expert.

"The work is a remarkable illustration of how basic biological study can have far-reaching consequences for human health."