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The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for transformative discoveries that illuminate how the immune system targets harmful infections while protecting the healthy tissues.

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

The research identified unique "security guards" within the immune system that remove malfunctioning defense cells capable of harming the body.

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

The winners will share a monetary award valued at 11m SEK.

Decisive Findings

"The research has been decisive for understanding how the body's defenses operates and the reason we do not all develop severe self-attack conditions," commented the chair of the Nobel Committee.

The trio's research explain a fundamental mystery: How does the defense system protect us from countless infections while leaving our own tissues unharmed?

The body's protection system employs immune cells that scan for indicators of disease, including viruses and germs it has never encountered.

Such cells utilize detectors—known as recognition units—that are produced by chance in countless combinations.

This gives the defense network the capacity to fight a broad range of invaders, but the randomness of the process unavoidably creates white blood cells that may target the body.

Protectors of the Immune System

Researchers previously understood that some of these harmful white blood cells were eliminated in the thymus—where immune cells mature.

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

We know that this process fails in self-attack conditions such as juvenile diabetes, MS, and RA.

The prize committee stated, "The findings have laid the foundation for a new field of investigation and spurred the development of new therapies, for instance for tumors and autoimmune diseases."

Regarding cancer, T-regs block the system from fighting the growth, so research are aimed at reducing their quantity.

For self-attack disorders, trials are testing increasing regulatory T-cells so the body is not under attack. A similar method could also be useful in minimizing the chances of organ transplant rejection.

Innovative Studies

Professor Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, performed experiments on rodents that had their immune gland removed, causing autoimmune disease.

The researcher demonstrated that introducing defense cells from healthy mice could stop the disease—implying there was a mechanism for preventing defenders from attacking the host.

Dr. Brunkow, from the Institute for Systems Biology in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, currently at a biotech firm in San Francisco, were investigating an inherited autoimmune disease in rodents and humans that led to the discovery of a gene critical for how regulatory T-cells operate.

"The groundbreaking work has revealed how the immune system is kept in check by T-reg cells, stopping it from accidentally attacking the body's own tissues," commented a leading physiology specialist.

"This work is a remarkable illustration of how fundamental physiological research can have broad implications for human health."