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This year's Nobel Prize in medical science has been granted for transformative discoveries that illuminate how the body's defense network attacks dangerous pathogens while sparing the healthy tissues.

A trio of renowned scientists—Japan's Prof. Sakaguchi and US experts Mary Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—received this honor.

Their work uncovered specialized "sentinels" within the defense system that remove rogue defense cells capable of attacking the organism.

The discoveries are now paving the way for new treatments for immune disorders and malignancies.

These winners will divide a prize fund worth 11m SEK.

Decisive Findings

"Their research has been essential for understanding how the immune system functions and the reason we don't all develop serious autoimmune diseases," stated the head of the award panel.

The trio's research address a core question: How does the defense system protect us from countless invaders while keeping our healthy cells unharmed?

The immune system uses immune cells that search for indicators of infection, even viruses and germs it has never encountered.

Such defenders employ sensors—called recognition units—that are produced by chance in a vast number of variations.

That provides the defense network the ability to fight a broad range of invaders, but the unpredictability of the process unavoidably produces white blood cells that can attack the host.

Protectors of the Body

Researchers previously knew that a portion of these problematic white blood cells were destroyed in the immune organ—where immune cells mature.

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

It is known that this process malfunctions in self-attack conditions such as juvenile diabetes, MS, and rheumatoid arthritis.

A Nobel panel stated, "The findings have laid the foundation for a novel area of research and spurred the development of new treatments, for example for cancer and immune disorders."

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

For self-attack disorders, trials are exploring boosting regulatory T-cells so the organism is not being harmed. A similar approach could also be effective in reducing the risks of transplanted organ failure.

Innovative Studies

Professor Shimon Sakaguchi, of Osaka University, performed experiments on mice that had their thymus removed, causing self-attack conditions.

The researcher showed that introducing defense cells from healthy animals could prevent the disease—suggesting there was a system for preventing immune cells from harming the host.

Mary Brunkow, from the a research center in Seattle, and Dr. Ramsdell, now at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in a California city, were studying an genetic immune disorder in mice and people that resulted in the discovery of a genetic factor critical for how T-regs function.

"The groundbreaking work has uncovered how the body's defenses is kept in check by regulatory T cells, preventing it from mistakenly targeting the body's own tissues," said a prominent biological science specialist.

"This work is a remarkable illustration of how fundamental physiological research can have far-reaching consequences for public health."