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The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for revolutionary findings that illuminate how the immune system attacks dangerous infections while protecting the body's own cells.

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

Their work identified specialized "sentinels" within the immune system that remove malfunctioning immune cells that could harming the body.

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

These laureates will divide a monetary award worth 11 million Swedish kronor.

Crucial Discoveries

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

This trio's research address a fundamental question: How does the immune system protect us from countless infections while keeping our healthy cells intact?

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

Such defenders employ detectors—known as receptors—that are produced by chance in a vast number of variations.

This provides the immune system the ability to fight a broad range of threats, but the randomness of the process inevitably produces white blood cells that may target the host.

Security Guards of the Body

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

This year's award recognizes the identification of T-reg cells—known as the body's "peacekeepers"—which travel through the system to neutralize other immune cells that attack the healthy cells.

It is known that this process malfunctions in self-attack conditions such as type-1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and RA.

The prize committee added, "The findings have laid the foundation for a novel area of investigation and accelerated the development of new therapies, for instance for tumors and autoimmune diseases."

Regarding malignancies, T-regs prevent the body from fighting the tumor, so studies are aimed at lowering their numbers.

For self-attack disorders, trials are testing boosting regulatory T-cells so the organism is no longer being harmed. A similar approach could also be effective in reducing the risks of organ transplant rejection.

Pioneering Studies

Professor Shimon Sakaguchi, of a Japanese institution, performed experiments on rodents that had their thymus extracted, leading to autoimmune disease.

The researcher demonstrated that injecting defense cells from healthy animals could stop the illness—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 Dr. Ramsdell, now at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco, were studying an inherited immune disorder in rodents and humans that resulted in the discovery of a gene critical for the way regulatory T-cells function.

"Their groundbreaking research has uncovered how the body's defenses is kept in check by regulatory T cells, stopping it from mistakenly attacking the healthy cells," said a leading physiology expert.

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