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This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was granted for transformative discoveries that clarify how the body's defense network attacks harmful infections while protecting the body's own cells.

A trio of renowned scientists—Japan's Prof. Sakaguchi and American experts Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—received this accolade.

The research uncovered unique "sentinels" within the defense system that remove malfunctioning defense cells capable of attacking the organism.

These discoveries are now paving the way for new treatments for autoimmune diseases and cancer.

These laureates will share a prize fund valued at 11 million Swedish kronor.

Crucial Findings

"Their work has been essential for understanding how the body's defenses operates and the reason we don't all develop severe autoimmune diseases," commented the head of the Nobel Committee.

This team's studies explain a fundamental mystery: In what way does the immune system defend us from countless invaders while keeping our own tissues unharmed?

Our immune system uses white blood cells that search for indicators of disease, even viruses and germs it has never encountered.

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

This provides the immune system the capacity to fight a wide array of invaders, but the unpredictability of the process unavoidably produces immune cells that can attack the body.

Security Guards of the Body

Researchers previously understood that some of these problematic white blood cells were eliminated in the thymus—where immune cells develop.

The latest Nobel Prize honors the identification of T-reg cells—known as the body's "security guards"—which patrol the system to neutralize other immune cells that attack the body's own tissues.

It is known that this process fails in autoimmune diseases such as juvenile diabetes, MS, and RA.

The prize committee added, "These findings have established a novel area of investigation and accelerated the development of new treatments, for instance for tumors and immune disorders."

In malignancies, regulatory T-cells block the system from attacking the growth, so studies are aimed at lowering their numbers.

For self-attack disorders, experiments are testing increasing T-reg cells so the organism is not being harmed. A similar approach could also be effective in reducing the risks of organ transplant failure.

Innovative Experiments

Professor Shimon Sakaguchi, of Osaka University, conducted experiments on mice that had their immune gland extracted, causing self-attack conditions.

The researcher demonstrated that introducing defense cells from other mice could prevent the disease—implying there was a mechanism for blocking immune cells from harming the host.

Mary Brunkow, from the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and Fred Ramsdell, now at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in a California city, were studying an inherited autoimmune disease in mice and humans that resulted in the identification of a genetic factor critical for the way T-regs function.

"The pioneering research has revealed how the body's defenses is kept in check by T-reg cells, stopping it from mistakenly targeting the body's own tissues," commented a leading biological science expert.

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