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The prestigious award in medical science was granted for transformative discoveries that illuminate how the immune system attacks dangerous infections while sparing the body's own cells.

A trio of renowned researchers—Japan's Shimon Sakaguchi and US experts Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—share this honor.

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

The discoveries are now enabling new therapies for autoimmune diseases and cancer.

The laureates will share a prize fund worth 11 million Swedish kronor.

Decisive Findings

"The work has been essential for understanding how the body's defenses functions and why we do not all develop serious self-attack conditions," commented the head of the Nobel Committee.

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

The immune system employs white blood cells that scan for indicators of infection, even pathogens and germs it has not met before.

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

That gives the defense network the capacity to combat a broad range of invaders, but the randomness of the mechanism unavoidably creates white blood cells that can attack the host.

Protectors of the Body

Scientists earlier knew that a portion of these harmful white blood cells were destroyed in the thymus—where white blood cells develop.

This year's award recognizes the identification of regulatory T-cells—described as the immune system's "peacekeepers"—which patrol the body to neutralize other defenders that assault the body's own tissues.

We know that this process malfunctions in autoimmune diseases such as type-1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and RA.

The Nobel panel added, "These discoveries have established a novel area of research and spurred the development of new treatments, for instance for cancer and autoimmune diseases."

In cancer, T-regs block the body from attacking the growth, so research are aimed at reducing their numbers.

For autoimmune diseases, trials are testing boosting T-reg cells so the organism is no longer under attack. A comparable approach could also be effective in minimizing the chances of organ transplant failure.

Innovative Experiments

Prof Shimon Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, performed experiments on rodents that had their thymus removed, leading to self-attack conditions.

The researcher demonstrated that injecting immune cells from healthy mice could stop the illness—implying there was a system for blocking defenders from attacking the host.

Dr. Brunkow, from the a research center in Seattle, and Dr. Ramsdell, currently at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco, were investigating an inherited immune disorder in mice and people that led to the identification of a genetic factor critical for how regulatory T-cells function.

"Their groundbreaking work has revealed how the body's defenses is controlled by regulatory T cells, preventing it from accidentally targeting the body's own tissues," commented a leading biological science expert.

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