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This year's prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for transformative findings that clarify how the body's defense network attacks dangerous pathogens while protecting the healthy tissues.

A trio of esteemed researchers—Japan's Shimon Sakaguchi and US scientists Dr. Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—share this accolade.

The work identified unique "security guards" within the immune system that remove rogue immune cells that could harming the organism.

The findings are now enabling new treatments for autoimmune diseases and malignancies.

These winners will share a prize fund valued at 11m Swedish kronor.

Crucial Findings

"The research has been essential for understanding how the immune system operates and the reason we do not all develop severe self-attack conditions," commented the head of the Nobel Committee.

The trio's research explain a fundamental question: In what way does the defense system protect us from countless infections while leaving our own tissues unharmed?

The body's protection system employs white blood cells that scan for signs of infection, even pathogens and bacteria it has never encountered.

Such cells employ detectors—known as recognition units—that are produced randomly in a vast number of combinations.

That gives the immune system the capacity to fight a wide array of invaders, but the randomness of the mechanism unavoidably produces white blood cells that may attack the body.

Security Guards of the Immune System

Scientists previously knew that a portion of these problematic defense cells were eliminated in the immune organ—where immune cells develop.

The latest award honors the discovery of T-reg cells—described as the body's "security guards"—which patrol the system to disarm other defenders that assault the healthy cells.

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

The prize committee added, "The discoveries have established a novel area of investigation and spurred the creation of innovative therapies, for instance for cancer and autoimmune diseases."

Regarding malignancies, T-regs prevent the body from fighting the tumor, so research are focused on reducing their numbers.

In autoimmune diseases, experiments are exploring boosting regulatory T-cells so the organism is no longer under attack. A comparable method could also be effective in reducing the chances of transplanted organ failure.

Innovative Studies

Professor Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, performed tests on mice that had their immune gland extracted, leading to self-attack conditions.

The researcher showed that injecting immune cells from healthy animals could stop the disease—implying there was a mechanism for preventing defenders from harming the host.

Mary Brunkow, affiliated with the a research center in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, currently at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco, were studying an genetic immune disorder in rodents and people that resulted in the identification of a genetic factor vital for how T-regs operate.

"Their pioneering work has uncovered how the body's defenses is kept in check by regulatory T cells, stopping it from accidentally targeting the body's own tissues," said a leading physiology expert.

"This research is a remarkable illustration of how basic biological research can have far-reaching consequences for public health."