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This year's prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for transformative discoveries that illuminate how the immune system attacks dangerous pathogens while protecting the healthy tissues.

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

The research uncovered specialized "security guards" within the defense system that eliminate rogue immune cells that could harming the organism.

The findings are now paving the way for new treatments for autoimmune diseases and cancer.

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

Decisive Discoveries

"The work has been decisive for understanding how the body's defenses operates and why we don't all suffer from severe self-attack conditions," commented the head of the award panel.

The trio's studies explain a fundamental question: How does the immune system protect us from numerous infections while keeping our own tissues intact?

Our immune system employs immune cells that scan for indicators of disease, including viruses and bacteria it has not met before.

Such defenders employ detectors—called recognition units—that are produced by chance in a vast number of combinations.

This gives the immune system the capacity to fight a wide array of invaders, but the unpredictability of the mechanism inevitably creates white blood cells that may target the body.

Security Guards of the Immune System

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

The latest Nobel Prize recognizes the discovery of regulatory T-cells—known as the body's "peacekeepers"—which travel through the body to disarm other defenders that assault the healthy cells.

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

A prize committee added, "These discoveries have laid the foundation for a novel area of research and accelerated the development of new therapies, for example for tumors and immune disorders."

Regarding malignancies, T-regs prevent the system from fighting the growth, so studies are focused on reducing their quantity.

For autoimmune diseases, experiments are testing increasing T-reg cells so the body is no longer being harmed. A similar method could also be effective in reducing the risks of transplanted organ rejection.

Innovative Experiments

Prof Shimon Sakaguchi, from a Japanese institution, conducted experiments on rodents that had their thymus removed, causing autoimmune disease.

He demonstrated that introducing defense cells from other animals could stop the disease—suggesting there was a mechanism for blocking defenders from attacking the host.

Dr. Brunkow, from the a research center in Seattle, and Dr. Ramsdell, currently at a biotech firm in a California city, were studying an genetic autoimmune disease in rodents and people that resulted in the discovery of a gene vital for how regulatory T-cells function.

"The groundbreaking research has uncovered how the immune system is controlled by regulatory T cells, preventing it from accidentally targeting the healthy cells," commented a prominent physiology expert.

"This work is a remarkable illustration of how fundamental biological study can have broad consequences for human health."