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The Nobel Prize in medical science has been granted for revolutionary discoveries that clarify how the body's defense network attacks dangerous infections while sparing the body's own cells.

Three renowned scientists—Japan's Shimon Sakaguchi and American experts Dr. Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—share this accolade.

The work uncovered specialized "sentinels" within the immune system that eliminate malfunctioning immune cells capable of attacking the organism.

The findings are now paving the way for innovative therapies for immune disorders and cancer.

The laureates will share a prize fund worth 11 million Swedish kronor.

Crucial Findings

"The research has been essential for understanding how the body's defenses functions and the reason we don't all develop serious self-attack conditions," stated the chair of the Nobel Committee.

This team's research explain a fundamental question: How does the immune system defend us from countless infections while leaving our own tissues intact?

The body's protection system uses white blood cells that search for indicators of disease, including pathogens and germs it has never encountered.

Such cells employ detectors—called recognition units—that are produced randomly in countless combinations.

This provides the immune system the ability to combat a wide array of threats, but the randomness of the mechanism unavoidably produces immune cells that may attack the body.

Security Guards of the Immune System

Scientists earlier knew that a portion of these harmful white blood cells were destroyed in the thymus—where immune cells mature.

This year's award honors the discovery of regulatory T-cells—described as the immune system's "peacekeepers"—which travel through the system to disarm any defenders that assault the healthy cells.

We know that this mechanism malfunctions in autoimmune diseases such as juvenile diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

The prize committee stated, "These findings have established a new field of investigation and accelerated the creation of innovative treatments, for instance for tumors and autoimmune diseases."

Regarding cancer, T-regs block the body from attacking the tumor, so studies are focused on reducing their quantity.

In autoimmune diseases, trials are exploring boosting T-reg cells so the organism is no longer under attack. A similar approach could also be useful in minimizing the risks of organ transplant rejection.

Innovative Experiments

Prof Shimon Sakaguchi, of a Japanese institution, performed tests on mice that had their thymus extracted, causing self-attack conditions.

He demonstrated that injecting immune cells from other mice could stop the disease—suggesting there was a system for blocking defenders from harming the body.

Mary Brunkow, affiliated with the Institute for Systems Biology in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, currently at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in a California city, were studying an inherited immune disorder in rodents and people that resulted in the identification of a genetic factor critical for how regulatory T-cells operate.

"Their pioneering work has revealed how the body's defenses is controlled by T-reg cells, preventing it from mistakenly targeting the healthy cells," commented a prominent physiology expert.

"This research is a remarkable illustration of how basic biological research can have broad consequences for public health."