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The prestigious award in medical science has been granted for revolutionary findings that clarify how the body's defense network attacks harmful infections while protecting the body's own cells.

Three renowned scientists—from Japan Shimon Sakaguchi and American scientists Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—share this honor.

The research identified specialized "security guards" within the defense system that remove malfunctioning defense cells capable of attacking the organism.

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

These laureates will divide a prize fund valued at 11 million SEK.

Crucial Discoveries

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

This trio's studies address a core question: How does the defense system defend us from countless infections while keeping our healthy cells intact?

Our immune system uses immune cells that search for signs of disease, even pathogens and germs it has not met before.

Such defenders employ sensors—known as receptors—that are generated randomly in a vast number of variations.

This gives the defense network the ability to combat a wide array of threats, but the unpredictability of the process unavoidably produces immune cells that may attack the body.

Security Guards of the Body

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

This year's Nobel Prize recognizes the identification of regulatory T-cells—known as the immune system's "security guards"—which patrol the body to neutralize other defenders that assault the body's own tissues.

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

A prize committee stated, "These findings have laid the foundation for a novel area of investigation and spurred the development of innovative treatments, for instance for tumors and immune disorders."

Regarding cancer, regulatory T-cells block the body from attacking the growth, so research are aimed at reducing their numbers.

In autoimmune diseases, experiments are exploring increasing regulatory T-cells so the body is no longer under attack. A comparable approach could also be useful in reducing the risks of transplanted organ failure.

Innovative Experiments

Professor Sakaguchi, from a Japanese institution, performed tests on rodents that had their thymus extracted, leading to autoimmune disease.

The researcher showed that injecting defense cells from healthy animals could stop the disease—suggesting there was a system for blocking defenders from attacking the body.

Dr. Brunkow, affiliated with the a research center in Seattle, and Fred Ramsdell, currently at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in a California city, were studying an inherited immune disorder in rodents and people that led to the identification of a genetic factor critical for how regulatory T-cells function.

"The pioneering work has uncovered how the immune system is controlled by T-reg cells, stopping it from mistakenly targeting the healthy cells," said a leading physiology expert.

"The research is a remarkable illustration of how fundamental biological research can have far-reaching implications for human health."