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This year's prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine was granted for transformative discoveries that clarify how the body's defense network attacks harmful pathogens while protecting the body's own cells.

A trio of esteemed researchers—from Japan Shimon Sakaguchi and US scientists Dr. Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—share this honor.

The research identified specialized "sentinels" within the immune system that eliminate malfunctioning defense cells that could harming the organism.

The discoveries are now enabling innovative treatments for immune disorders and cancer.

The laureates will share a prize fund worth 11 million SEK.

Crucial Discoveries

"Their research has been decisive for understanding how the immune system operates and why we do not all develop serious self-attack conditions," commented the chair of the award panel.

The trio's research address a fundamental question: How does the immune system defend us from numerous infections while keeping our healthy cells unharmed?

Our body's protection system uses white blood cells that scan for indicators of infection, including viruses and germs it has never encountered.

These defenders employ sensors—called receptors—that are generated by chance in countless variations.

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

Protectors of the Immune System

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

The latest Nobel Prize recognizes the identification of regulatory T-cells—known as the immune system's "security guards"—which travel through the system to neutralize any defenders that assault the healthy cells.

We know 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 therapies, for example for cancer and immune disorders."

In cancer, T-regs block the system from fighting the tumor, so research are aimed at reducing their numbers.

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 reducing the chances of transplanted organ failure.

Innovative Studies

Prof Sakaguchi, from a Japanese institution, conducted experiments on rodents that had their immune gland removed, leading to self-attack conditions.

The researcher showed that introducing immune cells from other animals could prevent the disease—suggesting there was a system for blocking defenders from harming the host.

Dr. Brunkow, from the a research center in Seattle, and Fred Ramsdell, currently at a biotech firm in a California city, were investigating an inherited autoimmune disease in rodents and humans that resulted in the identification of a genetic factor critical for how T-regs operate.

"The pioneering research has uncovered how the immune system is controlled by regulatory T cells, stopping it from accidentally attacking the body's own tissues," commented a leading physiology expert.

"The work is a striking example of how fundamental biological study can have broad implications for human health."