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This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been granted for revolutionary findings that illuminate how the body's defense network targets dangerous infections while sparing the healthy tissues.

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

Their work identified specialized "sentinels" within the defense system that eliminate malfunctioning defense cells that could attacking the organism.

The findings are now enabling innovative therapies for autoimmune diseases and cancer.

The winners will divide a prize fund valued at 11 million SEK.

Decisive Discoveries

"Their research has been decisive for understanding how the immune system operates and why we do not all suffer from serious self-attack conditions," stated the chair of the Nobel Committee.

This team's studies explain a core question: In what way does the immune system protect us from countless invaders while keeping our own tissues intact?

The body's protection system employs immune cells that search for indicators of infection, including pathogens and germs it has never encountered.

These cells employ sensors—called recognition units—that are generated by chance in a vast number of combinations.

That provides the immune system the capacity to combat a wide array of invaders, but the randomness of the process unavoidably creates white blood cells that may target the host.

Protectors of the Body

Scientists earlier knew that some of these harmful defense cells were destroyed in the thymus—where immune cells develop.

This year's Nobel Prize honors the identification of T-reg cells—described as the body's "security guards"—which patrol the system to disarm any immune cells that attack the body's own tissues.

We know that this mechanism malfunctions in self-attack conditions such as juvenile diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and RA.

The Nobel panel added, "These discoveries have established a novel area of research and spurred the development of new therapies, for example for cancer and immune disorders."

In cancer, regulatory T-cells prevent the system from attacking the tumor, so studies are focused on lowering their quantity.

For autoimmune diseases, experiments are exploring increasing T-reg cells so the organism is no longer under attack. A similar approach could also be useful in minimizing the chances of organ transplant failure.

Innovative Studies

Prof Sakaguchi, from a Japanese institution, performed tests on mice that had their thymus removed, leading to self-attack conditions.

The researcher showed that injecting immune cells from healthy mice could stop the disease—implying there was a system for preventing immune cells from harming the body.

Dr. Brunkow, from the a research center in Seattle, and Dr. Ramsdell, now at a biotech firm in San Francisco, were investigating an genetic autoimmune disease in mice and people that led to the identification of a genetic factor vital for the way regulatory T-cells function.

"The pioneering work has uncovered how the body's defenses is kept in check by regulatory T cells, stopping it from accidentally targeting the body's own tissues," said a prominent physiology expert.

"This research is a striking illustration of how fundamental biological research can have broad implications for public health."