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The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been granted for revolutionary findings that clarify how the body's defense network attacks dangerous pathogens while sparing the body's own cells.

Three renowned scientists—Japan's Shimon Sakaguchi and American experts Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—share this accolade.

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

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

These winners will divide a prize fund worth 11 million Swedish kronor.

Decisive Discoveries

"The work has been essential for understanding how the immune system operates and the reason we do not all develop serious self-attack conditions," commented the chair of the award panel.

This team's research address a core question: How does the immune system defend us from countless invaders while leaving our own tissues unharmed?

Our immune system employs white blood cells that scan for signs of infection, even pathogens and germs it has never encountered.

These cells utilize detectors—known as recognition units—that are produced by chance in countless combinations.

That gives the immune system the capacity to fight a broad range of invaders, but the unpredictability of the mechanism inevitably creates immune cells that can attack the host.

Security Guards of the Body

Researchers previously understood that a portion of these harmful defense cells were eliminated in the thymus—the site where immune cells develop.

The latest award honors the identification of regulatory T-cells—known as the immune system's "security guards"—which travel through the body to neutralize other immune cells that assault the healthy cells.

We know that this process fails in autoimmune diseases such as type-1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and RA.

A Nobel panel stated, "These discoveries have laid the foundation for a novel area of research and spurred the development of new treatments, for example for cancer and autoimmune diseases."

Regarding malignancies, regulatory T-cells block the system from attacking the growth, so research are aimed at lowering their quantity.

For autoimmune diseases, experiments are exploring increasing T-reg cells so the body is not being harmed. A comparable approach could also be effective in minimizing the risks of organ transplant rejection.

Innovative Studies

Prof Sakaguchi, of a Japanese institution, conducted tests on rodents that had their immune gland extracted, causing autoimmune disease.

He demonstrated that injecting immune cells from other mice could prevent the disease—implying there was a mechanism for blocking immune cells from harming the host.

Mary Brunkow, from the a research center in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, now at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in a California city, were investigating an inherited autoimmune disease in mice and humans that led to the discovery of a gene vital for how regulatory T-cells function.

"The groundbreaking work has uncovered how the immune system is kept in check by regulatory T cells, stopping it from mistakenly attacking the healthy cells," said a prominent physiology specialist.

"The work is a striking illustration of how basic physiological study can have broad implications for human health."