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This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for revolutionary findings that illuminate how the immune system attacks dangerous infections while protecting the healthy tissues.

Three esteemed scientists—Japan's Prof. Sakaguchi and American experts Dr. Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—share this accolade.

The work uncovered specialized "security guards" within the immune system that remove rogue defense cells that could attacking the body.

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

The laureates will share a prize fund valued at 11 million SEK.

Decisive Findings

"Their research has been essential for understanding how the body's defenses functions and the reason we don't all develop serious self-attack conditions," commented the head of the Nobel Committee.

This team's studies address a fundamental question: In what way does the defense system defend us from numerous invaders while keeping our own tissues intact?

The body's protection system employs immune cells that search for signs of disease, even viruses and bacteria it has never encountered.

These cells employ sensors—called recognition units—that are generated randomly in a vast number of combinations.

This gives the defense network the ability to fight a broad range of invaders, but the unpredictability of the process unavoidably produces white blood cells that can target the host.

Security Guards of the Immune System

Scientists previously understood 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 regulatory T-cells—known as the body's "peacekeepers"—which patrol the body to neutralize any immune cells that attack the body's own tissues.

We know that this process fails in self-attack conditions such as juvenile diabetes, MS, and rheumatoid arthritis.

The prize committee stated, "These findings have laid the foundation for a new field of research and accelerated the development of new treatments, for example for cancer and immune disorders."

In malignancies, T-regs block the body from fighting the tumor, so studies are aimed at lowering their quantity.

In autoimmune diseases, experiments are testing boosting T-reg cells so the body is no longer under attack. A similar approach could also be useful in minimizing the chances of organ transplant rejection.

Innovative Studies

Prof Shimon Sakaguchi, from a Japanese institution, performed experiments on mice that had their immune gland removed, causing self-attack conditions.

The researcher demonstrated that injecting immune cells from healthy animals could stop the illness—suggesting there was a mechanism for preventing immune cells from harming the body.

Mary Brunkow, affiliated with the Institute for Systems Biology in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, now at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in a California city, were studying an genetic autoimmune disease in rodents and people that resulted in the identification of a gene critical for the way T-regs operate.

"The groundbreaking work has revealed how the body's defenses is controlled by regulatory T cells, preventing it from accidentally attacking the healthy cells," said a prominent physiology expert.

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