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This year's Nobel Prize in medical science has been awarded for revolutionary findings that illuminate how the immune system attacks harmful pathogens while sparing the healthy tissues.

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

The work identified specialized "sentinels" within the immune system that eliminate rogue immune cells capable of harming the body.

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

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

Crucial Discoveries

"The work has been essential for understanding how the immune system functions and the reason we don't all develop serious self-attack conditions," stated the chair of the award panel.

The team's studies address a fundamental question: In what way does the immune system defend us from countless infections while keeping our own tissues intact?

Our body's protection system employs white blood cells that search for signs of disease, including viruses and bacteria it has not met before.

These defenders utilize sensors—called recognition units—that are produced by chance in countless variations.

That provides the defense network the ability to fight a wide array of invaders, but the randomness of the process inevitably creates immune cells that can attack the body.

Protectors of the Body

Researchers earlier understood that a portion of these problematic white blood cells were eliminated in the immune organ—where immune cells develop.

The latest Nobel Prize recognizes the identification of regulatory T-cells—described as the immune system's "peacekeepers"—which patrol the system to disarm other immune cells that assault the body's own tissues.

We know that this process fails in autoimmune diseases such as juvenile diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

A prize committee stated, "These findings have laid the foundation for a novel area of research and accelerated the development of innovative treatments, for example for tumors and immune disorders."

In cancer, T-regs block the body from attacking the tumor, so studies are aimed at reducing their quantity.

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 risks of organ transplant rejection.

Pioneering Experiments

Professor Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, conducted experiments on rodents that had their immune gland removed, leading to autoimmune disease.

The researcher showed that introducing defense cells from healthy mice could stop the disease—implying there was a system for blocking defenders from attacking the host.

Mary Brunkow, from the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and Fred Ramsdell, currently at a biotech firm in a California city, were investigating an inherited autoimmune disease in rodents and humans that resulted in the discovery of a gene critical for how regulatory T-cells operate.

"Their groundbreaking work has uncovered how the body's defenses is kept in check by T-reg cells, stopping it from mistakenly attacking the healthy cells," said a leading physiology specialist.

"The work is a remarkable illustration of how fundamental biological research can have broad consequences for public health."