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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 protecting the body's own cells.

A trio of renowned scientists—from Japan Prof. Sakaguchi and US scientists Dr. Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—share this accolade.

The research identified unique "security guards" within the defense system that remove malfunctioning defense cells capable of harming the organism.

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

These winners will share a prize fund valued at 11 million SEK.

Crucial Discoveries

"The work has been decisive for comprehending how the immune system operates and why we don't all develop serious self-attack conditions," commented the chair of the award panel.

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

The body's protection system employs white blood cells that scan for indicators of infection, even pathogens and germs it has never encountered.

These defenders utilize detectors—called receptors—that are produced randomly in countless combinations.

This gives the immune system the capacity to combat a wide array of invaders, but the unpredictability of the mechanism unavoidably produces white blood cells that can attack the host.

Protectors of the Body

Scientists earlier knew that some of these harmful white blood cells were eliminated in the thymus—where immune cells develop.

The latest Nobel Prize honors the identification of regulatory T-cells—described as the immune system's "peacekeepers"—which travel through the body to disarm other defenders that assault the body's own tissues.

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

The prize committee stated, "The discoveries have laid the foundation for a new field of investigation and accelerated the development of new therapies, for example for tumors and immune disorders."

In cancer, regulatory T-cells prevent the body from fighting the growth, so studies are aimed at lowering their numbers.

For self-attack disorders, experiments are exploring increasing T-reg cells so the body is not being harmed. A similar approach could also be useful in reducing the risks of transplanted organ rejection.

Innovative Studies

Prof Shimon Sakaguchi, of Osaka University, conducted experiments on rodents that had their immune gland extracted, leading to self-attack conditions.

The researcher showed that injecting defense cells from other mice could stop the disease—suggesting there was a system for blocking defenders from attacking the host.

Mary Brunkow, affiliated with the a research center in Seattle, and Fred Ramsdell, now at a biotech firm in San Francisco, were studying an inherited autoimmune disease in rodents and humans that resulted in the discovery of a gene vital for how T-regs operate.

"The pioneering research has revealed how the immune system is kept in check by T-reg cells, preventing it from accidentally attacking the body's own tissues," commented a prominent biological science specialist.

"The research is a striking illustration of how basic physiological research can have broad implications for public health."