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

A trio of esteemed researchers—Japan's Prof. Sakaguchi and US scientists Mary Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—share this honor.

Their work identified unique "security guards" within the defense system that remove rogue defense cells that could attacking the body.

The findings are now paving the way for new therapies for immune disorders and malignancies.

The laureates will divide a prize fund valued at 11m Swedish kronor.

Decisive Discoveries

"The research has been essential for understanding how the immune system functions and why we don't all develop severe self-attack conditions," commented the chair of the Nobel Committee.

The trio's research explain a core mystery: In what way does the defense system defend us from countless infections while keeping our healthy cells intact?

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

Such defenders utilize sensors—called receptors—that are generated randomly in a vast number of combinations.

That gives the defense network the ability to combat a wide array of threats, but the unpredictability of the process inevitably creates white blood cells that can attack the host.

Protectors of the Body

Scientists earlier understood that a portion of these harmful defense cells were eliminated in the thymus—where immune cells mature.

This year's award recognizes the discovery of regulatory T-cells—described as the immune system's "peacekeepers"—which travel through the body to disarm other defenders that attack the body's own tissues.

It is known that this mechanism malfunctions in autoimmune diseases such as type-1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

The Nobel panel added, "These discoveries have laid the foundation for a new field of investigation and accelerated the creation of innovative treatments, for instance for cancer and autoimmune diseases."

In malignancies, regulatory T-cells block the system from fighting the tumor, so research are aimed at reducing their numbers.

For self-attack disorders, experiments are testing increasing regulatory T-cells so the organism is no longer being harmed. A comparable approach could also be useful in reducing the chances of transplanted organ failure.

Innovative Experiments

Prof Shimon Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, performed experiments on mice that had their thymus removed, leading to self-attack conditions.

The researcher showed that introducing immune cells from healthy animals could stop the disease—implying there was a mechanism for blocking defenders from harming the host.

Dr. Brunkow, from the a research center in a US city, and Dr. Ramsdell, now at a biotech firm in a California city, were studying an genetic immune disorder in rodents and people that led to the identification of a genetic factor critical for the way T-regs operate.

"The groundbreaking work has uncovered how the body's defenses is controlled by regulatory T cells, preventing it from accidentally attacking the healthy cells," said a prominent biological science specialist.

"The research is a remarkable illustration of how basic biological research can have far-reaching consequences for human health."