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This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been granted for revolutionary discoveries that illuminate how the immune system targets harmful pathogens while protecting the healthy tissues.

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

Their work identified specialized "sentinels" within the defense system that eliminate malfunctioning defense cells that could attacking the body.

The discoveries are now enabling new treatments for immune disorders and malignancies.

The winners will share a prize fund valued at 11m SEK.

Decisive Findings

"Their work has been decisive for understanding how the immune system operates and the reason we don't all develop serious autoimmune diseases," commented the chair of the award panel.

This team's studies explain a fundamental mystery: How does the immune system defend us from countless infections while keeping our healthy cells intact?

The body's protection system uses white blood cells that search for signs of infection, even viruses and germs it has never encountered.

These cells utilize detectors—known as 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 threats, but the randomness of the process inevitably creates immune cells that may target the host.

Protectors of the Immune System

Scientists previously understood that some of these harmful white blood cells were destroyed in the thymus—where immune cells develop.

This year's Nobel Prize recognizes the discovery of regulatory T-cells—known as the body's "security guards"—which patrol the system to neutralize any defenders that assault the healthy cells.

It is known that this process fails in self-attack conditions such as type-1 diabetes, MS, and rheumatoid arthritis.

A prize committee added, "These findings have laid the foundation for a novel area of investigation and accelerated the creation of new therapies, for example for cancer and autoimmune diseases."

Regarding cancer, T-regs prevent the body from fighting the growth, so studies are focused on lowering their numbers.

In self-attack disorders, experiments are exploring increasing regulatory T-cells so the body is not under attack. A similar method could also be useful in reducing the chances of transplanted organ rejection.

Innovative Studies

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

He showed that introducing defense cells from healthy mice could stop the illness—suggesting there was a mechanism for blocking defenders from harming the host.

Mary Brunkow, affiliated with the a research center in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, now at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco, were studying an genetic immune disorder in mice and humans that led to the discovery of a genetic factor vital for the way T-regs operate.

"Their pioneering research has uncovered how the body's defenses is kept in check by T-reg cells, stopping it from accidentally targeting the healthy cells," said a prominent physiology specialist.

"The work is a striking example of how basic physiological study can have far-reaching implications for public health."