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This year's prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine has been granted for transformative findings that clarify how the body's defense network targets harmful infections while protecting the healthy tissues.

Three renowned scientists—Japan's Prof. Sakaguchi and US experts Dr. Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—received this honor.

Their research identified unique "security guards" within the immune system that remove malfunctioning defense cells capable of harming the organism.

The findings are now paving the way for new treatments for immune disorders and malignancies.

These winners will share a monetary award worth 11 million Swedish kronor.

Decisive Findings

"The research has been decisive for understanding how the body's defenses operates and why we don't all develop serious autoimmune diseases," stated the chair of the award panel.

The trio's research address a fundamental mystery: How does the immune system protect us from countless invaders while leaving our own tissues unharmed?

Our body's protection system uses immune cells that scan for signs of infection, including viruses and germs it has not met before.

Such cells employ detectors—known as receptors—that are produced by chance in countless combinations.

This gives the defense network the ability to combat a broad range of invaders, but the randomness of the process unavoidably creates white blood cells that may target the host.

Protectors of the Immune System

Scientists earlier understood that some of these problematic defense cells were destroyed in the immune organ—the site where white blood cells develop.

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

It is known that this mechanism fails in self-attack conditions such as type-1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

A prize committee added, "These findings have established a new field of investigation and accelerated the development of innovative therapies, for instance for tumors and immune disorders."

Regarding malignancies, T-regs block the body from attacking the growth, so research are focused on reducing their numbers.

For self-attack disorders, experiments are testing increasing T-reg cells so the organism is not being harmed. A comparable method could also be effective in reducing the risks of transplanted organ failure.

Innovative Studies

Professor Sakaguchi, of a Japanese institution, conducted experiments on rodents that had their thymus extracted, causing self-attack conditions.

The researcher showed that injecting immune cells from other animals could prevent the illness—suggesting there was a mechanism for blocking immune cells from attacking the host.

Mary Brunkow, from the a research center in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, now at a biotech firm in San Francisco, were investigating an inherited autoimmune disease in rodents and people that resulted in the identification of a genetic factor vital for the way regulatory T-cells function.

"Their groundbreaking research has uncovered how the body's defenses is kept in check by T-reg cells, stopping it from accidentally attacking the body's own tissues," said a prominent biological science specialist.

"This research is a striking example of how fundamental physiological research can have broad implications for public health."