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The prestigious award in medical science has been awarded for revolutionary discoveries that illuminate how the body's defense network targets dangerous infections while protecting the healthy tissues.

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

Their research identified unique "security guards" within the immune system that eliminate malfunctioning defense cells that could harming the body.

The findings are now enabling innovative therapies for immune disorders and cancer.

These laureates will divide a monetary award worth 11m Swedish kronor.

Crucial Discoveries

"The research has been decisive for understanding how the immune system functions and why we don't all suffer from serious self-attack conditions," stated the head of the Nobel Committee.

The trio's research explain a fundamental question: How does the defense system protect us from countless invaders while keeping our healthy cells intact?

The body's protection system uses white blood cells that scan for signs of infection, even pathogens and germs it has not met before.

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

That gives the defense network the capacity to combat a broad range of invaders, but the unpredictability of the mechanism inevitably produces immune cells that can target the host.

Security Guards of the Body

Researchers previously understood that a portion of these harmful defense cells were eliminated in the thymus—the site where immune cells mature.

This year's Nobel Prize honors the discovery of T-reg cells—known as the body's "security guards"—which patrol the system to disarm other immune cells that attack the healthy cells.

We know that this mechanism malfunctions in self-attack conditions such as type-1 diabetes, MS, and rheumatoid arthritis.

A prize committee stated, "These findings have laid the foundation for a novel area of research and spurred the creation of new treatments, for example for tumors and autoimmune diseases."

In cancer, T-regs block the body from attacking the growth, so research are focused on lowering their numbers.

For self-attack disorders, trials are exploring increasing T-reg cells so the organism is no longer being harmed. A comparable method could also be effective in reducing the chances of organ transplant failure.

Pioneering Studies

Prof Sakaguchi, of Osaka University, conducted tests on mice that had their thymus extracted, causing autoimmune disease.

He showed that introducing immune cells from healthy animals could stop the disease—suggesting there was a mechanism for blocking defenders from attacking the body.

Dr. 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 genetic autoimmune disease in mice and humans that resulted in the identification of a gene critical for how regulatory T-cells function.

"Their pioneering work has revealed how the immune system is kept in check by regulatory T cells, stopping it from mistakenly targeting the body's own tissues," said a leading biological science specialist.

"This research is a remarkable example of how basic biological study can have far-reaching implications for public health."