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This year's prestigious award in medical science has been granted for revolutionary findings that clarify how the immune system targets dangerous infections while sparing the healthy tissues.

A trio of esteemed scientists—Japan's Shimon Sakaguchi and American scientists Dr. Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—share this accolade.

Their research identified unique "security guards" within the defense system that remove malfunctioning defense cells that could harming the body.

These discoveries are now enabling innovative treatments for autoimmune diseases and malignancies.

These winners will share a monetary award worth 11 million Swedish kronor.

Decisive Discoveries

"The research has been decisive for understanding how the immune system functions and why we do not all develop severe autoimmune diseases," commented the chair of the award panel.

The trio's research explain a core mystery: In what way does the immune system defend us from numerous infections while leaving our own tissues intact?

Our body's protection system uses immune cells that scan for signs of infection, including pathogens and bacteria it has not met before.

These cells employ sensors—known as recognition units—that are produced randomly in a vast number of combinations.

This gives the immune system the capacity to fight a broad range of threats, but the unpredictability of the process unavoidably creates white blood cells that can attack the body.

Protectors of the Body

Scientists earlier knew that a portion of these harmful white blood cells were eliminated in the immune organ—the site where white blood cells develop.

This year's Nobel Prize recognizes the identification of regulatory T-cells—known as the body's "peacekeepers"—which travel through the system 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 prize committee stated, "These discoveries have established a new field of investigation and spurred the creation of new therapies, for example for tumors and autoimmune diseases."

In malignancies, T-regs prevent the system from attacking the growth, so research are focused on lowering their numbers.

For self-attack disorders, trials are exploring boosting regulatory T-cells so the body is no longer being harmed. A comparable method could also be effective in minimizing the chances of organ transplant rejection.

Pioneering Studies

Professor Sakaguchi, of Osaka University, performed tests on mice that had their thymus extracted, leading to self-attack conditions.

The researcher demonstrated that introducing defense cells from other mice could prevent the illness—implying there was a mechanism for preventing defenders from attacking the body.

Dr. Brunkow, from the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and Fred Ramsdell, now at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in a California city, were studying an genetic autoimmune disease in mice and people that resulted in the discovery of a genetic factor critical for how regulatory T-cells operate.

"The pioneering research has revealed how the body's defenses is kept in check by regulatory T cells, stopping it from mistakenly attacking the body's own tissues," said a leading biological science specialist.

"The work is a striking example of how fundamental biological study can have far-reaching consequences for human health."