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This year's prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for revolutionary discoveries that illuminate how the body's defense network targets dangerous infections while sparing the healthy tissues.

A trio of renowned scientists—from Japan Prof. Sakaguchi and US experts Mary Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—share this accolade.

The work identified specialized "security guards" within the defense system that eliminate malfunctioning defense cells capable of attacking the organism.

These discoveries are now enabling new therapies for immune disorders and cancer.

The laureates will divide a prize fund worth 11m Swedish kronor.

Crucial Findings

"The research has been decisive for comprehending how the immune system operates and the reason we do not all develop severe self-attack conditions," commented the chair of the award panel.

The trio's research explain a fundamental mystery: In what way does the immune system defend us from numerous infections while keeping our healthy cells intact?

Our body's protection system employs white blood cells that scan for signs of disease, even pathogens and germs it has never encountered.

These defenders utilize sensors—called recognition units—that are produced randomly in a vast number of combinations.

This gives the defense network the capacity to combat a wide array of invaders, but the randomness of the mechanism unavoidably produces immune cells that may target the body.

Protectors of the Body

Scientists previously knew that some of these problematic defense cells were destroyed in the immune organ—where white blood cells mature.

The latest Nobel Prize recognizes the identification of regulatory T-cells—described as the body's "security guards"—which travel through the body to disarm other immune cells that assault the healthy cells.

It is known that this process fails in self-attack conditions such as juvenile diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and RA.

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

In cancer, regulatory T-cells prevent the body from fighting the growth, so studies are focused on lowering their quantity.

In autoimmune diseases, trials are testing increasing T-reg cells so the body is not under attack. A similar method could also be useful in minimizing the chances of transplanted organ rejection.

Pioneering Studies

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

He showed that injecting immune cells from healthy mice could stop the illness—suggesting there was a system for blocking defenders from harming the body.

Dr. Brunkow, affiliated with the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and Dr. Ramsdell, currently at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in a California city, were investigating an inherited immune disorder in rodents and humans that led to the identification of a genetic factor critical for the way T-regs operate.

"The groundbreaking research has revealed how the immune system is kept in check by regulatory T cells, preventing it from accidentally attacking the healthy cells," said a prominent biological science specialist.

"This work is a striking example of how fundamental physiological research can have far-reaching consequences for human health."