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This year's prestigious award in medical science has been granted for transformative discoveries that illuminate how the immune system attacks dangerous pathogens while sparing the healthy tissues.

Three esteemed researchers—from Japan Prof. Sakaguchi and US experts Dr. Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—share this honor.

Their research uncovered specialized "sentinels" within the immune system that eliminate malfunctioning defense cells capable of harming the body.

The findings are now enabling new therapies for immune disorders and cancer.

These laureates will share a prize fund worth 11m Swedish kronor.

Decisive Discoveries

"The research has been essential for understanding how the body's defenses operates and why we do not all develop severe self-attack conditions," commented the head of the award panel.

The team's research address a fundamental mystery: In what way does the immune system protect us from numerous infections while keeping our own tissues unharmed?

Our immune system employs immune cells that search for indicators of infection, even pathogens and bacteria it has never encountered.

These cells employ detectors—known as receptors—that are produced by chance in countless variations.

That gives the defense network the ability to combat a broad range of invaders, but the unpredictability of the process inevitably produces immune cells that may target the host.

Security Guards of the Immune System

Scientists previously understood that a portion of these problematic white blood cells were destroyed in the immune organ—where white blood cells mature.

This year's award recognizes the discovery of regulatory T-cells—described as the body's "security guards"—which patrol the body to disarm other defenders that assault the body's own tissues.

It is known that this mechanism fails in self-attack conditions such as juvenile diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and RA.

The Nobel panel added, "These discoveries have laid the foundation for a novel area of research and spurred the creation of new treatments, for instance for cancer and immune disorders."

Regarding malignancies, regulatory T-cells prevent the system from fighting the tumor, so studies are aimed at reducing their numbers.

In self-attack disorders, trials are exploring increasing regulatory T-cells so the body is not being harmed. A comparable method could also be effective in minimizing the risks of transplanted organ failure.

Pioneering Experiments

Prof Sakaguchi, from a Japanese institution, conducted tests on mice that had their immune gland extracted, leading to self-attack conditions.

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

Mary Brunkow, affiliated with the a research center in Seattle, and Fred Ramsdell, currently at a biotech firm in a California city, were studying an inherited autoimmune disease in rodents and people that led to the identification of a gene vital for the way T-regs operate.

"The pioneering research has revealed how the immune system is controlled by regulatory T cells, stopping it from mistakenly targeting the body's own tissues," said a leading physiology specialist.

"This research is a striking illustration of how basic physiological study can have broad consequences for public health."