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This year's prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded for transformative discoveries that clarify how the body's defense network targets harmful pathogens while protecting the healthy tissues.

A trio of esteemed researchers—from Japan Prof. Sakaguchi and American experts Dr. Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—share this honor.

Their work uncovered specialized "security guards" within the defense system that remove rogue defense cells capable of attacking the organism.

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

These winners will divide a prize fund valued at 11m Swedish kronor.

Decisive Discoveries

"The research has been essential for understanding how the body's defenses operates and why we do not all develop serious self-attack conditions," stated the chair of the award panel.

The team's research address a fundamental mystery: In what way does the defense system defend us from numerous invaders while keeping our healthy cells intact?

The body's protection system employs white blood cells that search for signs of infection, even viruses and bacteria it has never encountered.

Such cells utilize detectors—called recognition units—that are produced randomly in countless variations.

That provides the defense network the capacity to fight a wide array of threats, but the unpredictability of the process inevitably produces immune cells that can target the host.

Security Guards of the Immune System

Researchers earlier understood that a portion of these problematic white blood cells were destroyed in the immune organ—where white blood cells develop.

The latest Nobel Prize honors the identification of T-reg cells—known as the body's "peacekeepers"—which travel through the body to neutralize any immune cells that assault the body's own tissues.

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

The Nobel panel added, "The discoveries have established a new field of research and accelerated the development of innovative treatments, for instance for cancer and autoimmune diseases."

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

In self-attack disorders, trials are exploring increasing regulatory T-cells so the body is no longer under attack. A similar approach could also be useful in reducing the risks of transplanted organ failure.

Pioneering Experiments

Prof Shimon Sakaguchi, of Osaka University, performed experiments on mice that had their thymus extracted, causing autoimmune disease.

He demonstrated that introducing defense cells from healthy animals could prevent the disease—implying there was a mechanism for preventing defenders from attacking the body.

Mary Brunkow, from the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and Fred Ramsdell, currently at a biotech firm in a California city, were investigating an genetic autoimmune disease in rodents and people that resulted in the identification of a gene critical for how regulatory T-cells operate.

"Their pioneering work has uncovered how the body's defenses is controlled by T-reg cells, stopping it from mistakenly targeting the healthy cells," commented a prominent physiology specialist.

"This work is a remarkable example of how fundamental biological study can have far-reaching consequences for human health."