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The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded for transformative discoveries that clarify how the body's defense network targets dangerous pathogens while sparing the healthy tissues.

A trio of esteemed scientists—Japan's Shimon Sakaguchi and American experts Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—share this honor.

Their work uncovered specialized "security guards" within the immune system that eliminate rogue defense cells that could attacking the body.

These discoveries are now enabling innovative treatments for immune disorders and malignancies.

The winners will divide a prize fund valued at 11 million Swedish kronor.

Decisive Discoveries

"The research has been essential for comprehending how the body's defenses operates and why we don't all develop severe self-attack conditions," stated the head of the Nobel Committee.

The team's research explain a fundamental question: How does the immune system protect us from numerous infections while keeping our own tissues intact?

The body's protection system employs immune cells that scan for signs of infection, including viruses and bacteria it has never encountered.

These defenders employ detectors—called receptors—that are produced randomly in a vast number of combinations.

That provides the immune system the ability to combat a wide array of threats, but the unpredictability of the process unavoidably creates immune cells that may target the host.

Protectors of the Body

Researchers previously understood that some of these harmful defense cells were eliminated in the immune organ—where immune cells mature.

The latest Nobel Prize recognizes the discovery of regulatory T-cells—known as the immune system's "security guards"—which travel through the system to neutralize any defenders that attack the healthy cells.

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

The Nobel panel added, "The findings have laid the foundation for a new field of research and spurred the creation of new treatments, for example for tumors and autoimmune diseases."

Regarding cancer, regulatory T-cells prevent the body from attacking the growth, so research are aimed at reducing their numbers.

For self-attack disorders, experiments are testing increasing regulatory T-cells so the body is not under attack. A similar method could also be effective in reducing the risks of organ transplant rejection.

Pioneering Studies

Prof Shimon Sakaguchi, from a Japanese institution, performed tests on rodents that had their immune gland extracted, leading to autoimmune disease.

The researcher demonstrated that injecting defense cells from healthy animals could prevent the disease—suggesting there was a mechanism for blocking immune cells from harming the host.

Mary Brunkow, affiliated with the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and Fred Ramsdell, currently at a biotech firm in a California city, were studying an inherited autoimmune disease in rodents and humans that resulted in the identification of a genetic factor vital for the way T-regs operate.

"Their pioneering work has uncovered how the body's defenses is controlled by T-reg cells, preventing it from accidentally attacking the healthy cells," said a leading biological science expert.

"The research is a striking illustration of how fundamental physiological study can have broad consequences for human health."