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The prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine has been granted for revolutionary findings that illuminate how the immune system targets harmful infections while sparing the healthy tissues.

Three esteemed researchers—Japan's Prof. Sakaguchi and American scientists Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—share this accolade.

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

The findings are now enabling innovative therapies for immune disorders and malignancies.

The laureates will divide a prize fund valued at 11 million Swedish kronor.

Decisive Findings

"The work has been decisive for comprehending how the body's defenses functions and the reason we don't all develop serious autoimmune diseases," stated the chair of the Nobel Committee.

This trio's studies address a fundamental question: In what way does the defense system protect us from numerous infections while leaving our healthy cells intact?

The immune system uses white blood cells that search for indicators of infection, even viruses and germs it has never encountered.

Such cells employ detectors—known as receptors—that are produced randomly in a vast number of combinations.

This gives the immune system the ability to fight a broad range of threats, but the unpredictability of the mechanism unavoidably produces white blood cells that may target the body.

Security Guards of the Immune System

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

This year's award recognizes the discovery of regulatory T-cells—known as the immune system's "security guards"—which travel through the system to disarm other defenders that attack the body's own tissues.

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

The Nobel panel added, "The discoveries have laid the foundation for a novel area of investigation and spurred the creation of innovative treatments, for instance for cancer and autoimmune diseases."

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

For autoimmune diseases, experiments are exploring increasing regulatory T-cells so the organism is no longer being harmed. A comparable method could also be effective in minimizing the risks of organ transplant rejection.

Pioneering Experiments

Professor Sakaguchi, of Osaka University, conducted tests on mice that had their thymus extracted, causing autoimmune disease.

He showed that injecting defense cells from other animals could prevent the disease—implying there was a mechanism for preventing defenders from harming the host.

Mary Brunkow, affiliated with the Institute for Systems Biology in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, now at a biotech firm in a California city, were studying an genetic autoimmune disease in mice and humans that resulted in the discovery 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, preventing it from mistakenly attacking the body's own tissues," commented a prominent biological science expert.

"The research is a remarkable example of how basic physiological research can have far-reaching consequences for public health."