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The Nobel Prize in medical science was awarded for revolutionary discoveries that clarify how the immune system attacks dangerous pathogens while sparing the healthy tissues.

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

Their work identified unique "security guards" within the immune system that remove rogue immune cells that could attacking the body.

The discoveries are now paving the way for innovative therapies for immune disorders and cancer.

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

Crucial Findings

"The research has been essential for understanding how the immune system functions and the reason we do not all suffer from serious self-attack conditions," stated the head of the award panel.

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

The immune system employs immune cells that scan for indicators of infection, even viruses and bacteria it has not met before.

These defenders utilize detectors—known as receptors—that are produced randomly in countless combinations.

This provides the defense network the capacity to fight a wide array of threats, but the unpredictability of the mechanism inevitably produces white blood cells that can attack the host.

Security Guards of the Immune System

Scientists previously understood that some of these harmful white blood cells were destroyed in the immune organ—the site where immune cells mature.

This year's Nobel Prize recognizes the discovery of regulatory T-cells—known as the immune system's "security guards"—which patrol the system to neutralize other defenders that attack the body's own tissues.

It is known that this process fails in autoimmune diseases such as type-1 diabetes, MS, and rheumatoid arthritis.

A Nobel panel stated, "These findings have laid the foundation for a new field of research and accelerated the creation of new therapies, for instance for cancer and autoimmune diseases."

In cancer, regulatory T-cells prevent the body from fighting the tumor, so studies are aimed at lowering their numbers.

For self-attack disorders, experiments are testing boosting regulatory T-cells so the body is not being harmed. A comparable method could also be effective in minimizing the chances of organ transplant rejection.

Innovative Experiments

Professor Shimon Sakaguchi, from a Japanese institution, performed experiments on mice that had their immune gland removed, leading to autoimmune disease.

The researcher demonstrated that injecting defense cells from other animals could prevent the illness—implying there was a mechanism for blocking immune cells from attacking the host.

Mary 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 mice and people that resulted in the discovery of a genetic factor critical for the way T-regs function.

"Their pioneering work has uncovered how the immune system is controlled by T-reg cells, stopping it from mistakenly targeting the body's own tissues," said a leading physiology specialist.

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