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This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded for transformative findings that clarify how the immune system attacks harmful infections while protecting the healthy tissues.

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

The research identified unique "security guards" within the defense system that remove rogue defense cells that could attacking the organism.

The findings are now enabling innovative treatments for autoimmune diseases and malignancies.

These winners will divide a monetary award worth 11m SEK.

Decisive Discoveries

"Their work has been essential for comprehending how the body's defenses functions and the reason we do not all develop severe autoimmune diseases," commented the head of the Nobel Committee.

The team's research explain a core mystery: In what way does the immune system defend us from countless infections while leaving our healthy cells intact?

The body's protection system uses immune cells that scan for indicators of infection, even pathogens and germs it has never encountered.

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

That provides the immune system the ability to fight a wide array of threats, but the randomness of the process unavoidably creates immune cells that may attack the body.

Security Guards of the Body

Researchers previously knew that a portion of these harmful white blood cells were destroyed in the immune organ—the site where white blood cells mature.

This year's Nobel Prize honors the discovery of regulatory T-cells—described as the body's "peacekeepers"—which patrol the system to neutralize any immune cells that assault the healthy cells.

It is known that this mechanism fails in autoimmune diseases such as juvenile diabetes, MS, and RA.

The Nobel panel stated, "These discoveries have laid the foundation for a new field of investigation and accelerated the development of innovative therapies, for instance for tumors and immune disorders."

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

For autoimmune diseases, trials are testing increasing regulatory T-cells so the body is not being harmed. A comparable method could also be useful in minimizing the risks of organ transplant failure.

Pioneering Experiments

Prof Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, conducted tests on mice that had their immune gland extracted, causing autoimmune disease.

The researcher demonstrated that injecting defense cells from other mice could prevent the illness—suggesting there was a system for blocking immune cells from attacking the body.

Mary Brunkow, affiliated with the a research center in a US city, and Dr. Ramsdell, now at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco, were studying an inherited autoimmune disease in mice and people that resulted in the discovery of a genetic factor critical for the way T-regs function.

"Their pioneering research has uncovered how the body's defenses is controlled by regulatory T cells, stopping it from accidentally targeting the body's own tissues," said a prominent physiology specialist.

"This research is a striking example of how fundamental biological research can have far-reaching consequences for public health."