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The prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded for revolutionary findings that clarify how the body's defense network targets dangerous pathogens while sparing the healthy tissues.

Three renowned researchers—Japan's Shimon Sakaguchi and US experts Mary Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—received this honor.

The research identified specialized "sentinels" within the defense system that eliminate malfunctioning immune cells that could harming the body.

These discoveries are now enabling innovative therapies for autoimmune diseases and malignancies.

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

Decisive Discoveries

"Their research has been essential for comprehending how the immune system operates and the reason we do not all develop serious autoimmune diseases," stated the chair of the Nobel Committee.

This trio's studies address a core mystery: How does the immune system defend us from countless infections while leaving our own tissues intact?

Our body's protection system employs white blood cells that scan for indicators of infection, even pathogens and germs it has not met before.

These defenders utilize sensors—called receptors—that are produced randomly in countless combinations.

That provides the defense network the ability to combat a wide array of invaders, but the randomness of the mechanism unavoidably produces immune cells that may attack the body.

Security Guards of the Body

Scientists earlier knew that some of these problematic white blood cells were destroyed in the immune organ—the site where white blood cells mature.

The latest award honors the identification of regulatory T-cells—described as the immune system's "peacekeepers"—which travel through the body to disarm any defenders that attack the healthy cells.

We know that this process malfunctions in self-attack conditions such as juvenile diabetes, MS, and rheumatoid arthritis.

A prize committee stated, "These findings have established a novel area of investigation and spurred the development of innovative treatments, for example for cancer and autoimmune diseases."

In malignancies, T-regs block the system from fighting the growth, so studies are focused on reducing their numbers.

For self-attack disorders, experiments are testing increasing T-reg cells so the body is no longer being harmed. A comparable method could also be effective in reducing the risks of organ transplant failure.

Innovative Experiments

Prof Shimon Sakaguchi, from a Japanese institution, conducted tests on rodents that had their thymus extracted, causing autoimmune disease.

He showed that introducing defense cells from healthy mice could prevent the illness—implying there was a mechanism for preventing defenders from attacking the host.

Dr. Brunkow, from the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and Dr. Ramsdell, now at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco, were studying an inherited autoimmune disease in rodents and people that resulted in the identification of a genetic factor critical for the way T-regs operate.

"Their groundbreaking work has revealed how the immune system is controlled by T-reg cells, stopping it from accidentally attacking the body's own tissues," said a prominent biological science expert.

"The work is a remarkable example of how fundamental physiological research can have broad consequences for public health."