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This year's prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded for revolutionary findings that clarify how the immune system attacks dangerous infections while protecting the healthy tissues.

A trio of esteemed scientists—Japan's Shimon Sakaguchi and US scientists Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—share this honor.

The work identified unique "security guards" within the defense system that eliminate malfunctioning immune cells capable of harming the organism.

These findings are now enabling new therapies for autoimmune diseases and cancer.

These laureates will share a monetary award worth 11m Swedish kronor.

Crucial Discoveries

"Their work has been essential for understanding how the immune system operates and the reason we don't all develop severe self-attack conditions," commented the chair of the award panel.

The trio's studies address a fundamental question: In what way does the immune system defend us from numerous infections while keeping our healthy cells intact?

Our body's protection system uses white blood cells that search for signs of disease, including viruses and germs it has not met before.

These cells utilize detectors—called receptors—that are generated by chance in a vast number of variations.

That gives the immune system the capacity to fight a broad range of threats, but the unpredictability of the mechanism inevitably produces white blood cells that can target the host.

Protectors of the Body

Scientists previously understood that a portion of these problematic white blood cells were eliminated in the thymus—where white blood cells develop.

This year's award recognizes the identification of regulatory T-cells—described as the body's "security guards"—which travel through the body to neutralize other defenders that attack the healthy cells.

It is known that this mechanism fails in autoimmune diseases such as type-1 diabetes, MS, and rheumatoid arthritis.

The Nobel panel stated, "The discoveries have laid the foundation for a novel area of investigation and spurred the development of new treatments, for example for tumors and autoimmune diseases."

In cancer, regulatory T-cells prevent the system from attacking the growth, so research are focused on reducing their numbers.

In autoimmune diseases, experiments are exploring increasing T-reg cells so the body is not under attack. A comparable approach could also be effective in minimizing the risks of transplanted organ rejection.

Pioneering Studies

Professor Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, conducted experiments on mice that had their immune gland removed, leading to autoimmune disease.

The researcher demonstrated that introducing immune cells from other animals could stop the disease—implying there was a mechanism for preventing defenders from attacking the body.

Dr. Brunkow, affiliated with the Institute for Systems Biology in a US city, and Dr. Ramsdell, now at a biotech firm in San Francisco, were studying an genetic autoimmune disease in mice and humans that led to the identification of a gene critical for how T-regs function.

"The groundbreaking research has uncovered how the immune system is kept in check by T-reg cells, preventing it from accidentally attacking the healthy cells," said a prominent biological science expert.

"The work is a striking illustration of how basic biological study can have far-reaching implications for human health."