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This year's prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine has been granted for transformative discoveries that clarify how the immune system attacks harmful pathogens while sparing the body's own cells.

A trio of renowned researchers—Japan's Prof. Sakaguchi and US experts Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—share this honor.

Their work uncovered specialized "security guards" within the immune system that remove rogue immune cells that could attacking the organism.

These findings are now enabling new therapies for immune disorders and malignancies.

These winners will divide a prize fund worth 11m SEK.

Decisive Findings

"Their work has been decisive for comprehending how the body's defenses operates and the reason we do not all develop severe autoimmune diseases," stated the head of the award panel.

The team's studies address a core question: In what way does the defense system protect us from numerous invaders while leaving our own tissues unharmed?

The body's protection system employs immune cells that scan for indicators of disease, even pathogens and germs it has never encountered.

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

That gives the defense network the capacity to fight a wide array of threats, but the unpredictability of the process inevitably produces white blood cells that may target the host.

Security Guards of the Body

Scientists previously knew that some of these harmful defense cells were eliminated in the thymus—the site where white blood cells develop.

This year's Nobel Prize honors the discovery of regulatory T-cells—known as the body's "security guards"—which travel through the system to neutralize any defenders that attack the healthy cells.

It is known that this process fails in autoimmune diseases such as juvenile diabetes, MS, and RA.

The Nobel panel stated, "These findings have established a novel area of research and spurred the development of innovative treatments, for example for tumors and immune disorders."

Regarding malignancies, T-regs prevent the body from fighting the tumor, so studies are focused on lowering their quantity.

In self-attack disorders, trials are testing boosting regulatory T-cells so the organism is no longer being harmed. A similar method could also be useful in minimizing the chances of organ transplant rejection.

Pioneering Experiments

Prof Shimon Sakaguchi, of a Japanese institution, performed tests on mice that had their immune gland removed, causing autoimmune disease.

The researcher showed that injecting immune cells from healthy mice could stop the disease—implying there was a system for preventing defenders from attacking the body.

Dr. Brunkow, affiliated with the Institute for Systems Biology in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, now at a biotech firm in San Francisco, were studying an inherited autoimmune disease in rodents and people that led to the discovery of a gene critical for how T-regs operate.

"Their pioneering research has revealed how the immune system is controlled by regulatory T cells, preventing it from mistakenly targeting the healthy cells," said a leading biological science expert.

"The research is a striking example of how basic biological research can have far-reaching implications for public health."