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The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded for revolutionary discoveries that clarify how the body's defense network attacks dangerous infections while protecting the body's own cells.

A trio of esteemed researchers—from Japan Shimon Sakaguchi and American scientists Dr. Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—share this honor.

The research identified specialized "security guards" within the defense system that eliminate malfunctioning immune cells capable of attacking the organism.

The findings are now paving the way for innovative therapies for autoimmune diseases and malignancies.

The winners will divide a monetary award valued at 11 million Swedish kronor.

Decisive Findings

"The research has been decisive for understanding how the body's defenses functions and why we do not all suffer from severe self-attack conditions," stated the head of the Nobel Committee.

The team's research address a core question: How does the immune system defend us from countless infections while leaving our own tissues unharmed?

Our body's protection system uses white blood cells that scan for indicators of disease, including viruses and germs it has not met before.

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

This gives the immune system the capacity to fight a broad range of threats, but the unpredictability of the process inevitably produces immune cells that can target the host.

Security Guards of the Body

Scientists earlier understood that some of these problematic white blood cells were destroyed in the immune organ—the site where immune cells develop.

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

It is known that this mechanism malfunctions in self-attack conditions such as type-1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and RA.

A Nobel panel added, "These findings have established a novel area of investigation and spurred the development of new therapies, for instance for cancer and autoimmune diseases."

In malignancies, regulatory T-cells prevent the system from fighting the tumor, so studies are focused on reducing their quantity.

For self-attack disorders, trials are exploring boosting T-reg cells so the organism is no longer being harmed. A similar approach could also be effective in minimizing the chances of transplanted organ rejection.

Pioneering Experiments

Prof Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, conducted tests on mice that had their thymus removed, causing self-attack conditions.

The researcher demonstrated that injecting defense cells from other mice could stop the illness—implying there was a system for blocking immune cells from harming the body.

Dr. Brunkow, affiliated with the a research center in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, currently at a biotech firm in San Francisco, were studying an inherited autoimmune disease in mice and people that resulted in the identification of a gene vital for the way T-regs operate.

"The groundbreaking research has uncovered how the body's defenses is controlled by regulatory T cells, preventing it from accidentally attacking the healthy cells," commented a leading physiology expert.

"This work is a striking example of how fundamental physiological study can have broad consequences for human health."