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The prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine has been granted for revolutionary discoveries that illuminate how the body's defense network attacks harmful infections while protecting the healthy tissues.

A trio of esteemed researchers—Japan's Prof. Sakaguchi and American experts Dr. Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—received this honor.

The research uncovered unique "security guards" within the defense system that eliminate rogue defense cells capable of harming the body.

These findings are now paving the way for new therapies for immune disorders and cancer.

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

Decisive Findings

"The research has been essential for understanding how the immune system operates and why we don't all suffer from serious self-attack conditions," stated the chair of the award panel.

The team's research address a fundamental mystery: In what way does the defense system defend us from countless infections while leaving our healthy cells intact?

Our body's protection system uses white blood cells that scan for signs of disease, including pathogens and germs it has never encountered.

Such cells utilize detectors—called receptors—that are generated randomly in a vast number of combinations.

This gives the immune system the ability to combat a wide array of threats, but the unpredictability of the process unavoidably creates white blood cells that can target the host.

Security Guards of the Immune System

Scientists earlier understood that some of these problematic defense cells were eliminated in the thymus—where white blood cells develop.

The latest award recognizes the discovery of regulatory T-cells—described as the body's "peacekeepers"—which travel through the system to disarm any immune cells that attack the healthy cells.

We know that this process fails in self-attack conditions such as type-1 diabetes, MS, and RA.

The prize committee added, "These discoveries have laid the foundation for a novel area of research and spurred the creation of innovative treatments, for example for cancer and immune disorders."

Regarding cancer, regulatory T-cells block the body from attacking the tumor, so research are aimed at reducing their numbers.

In self-attack disorders, experiments are exploring boosting T-reg cells so the organism is not under attack. A comparable approach could also be effective in minimizing the risks of organ transplant rejection.

Innovative Studies

Professor Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, performed tests on mice that had their thymus extracted, causing autoimmune disease.

He demonstrated that introducing immune cells from other animals could stop the illness—suggesting there was a system for preventing immune cells from harming the host.

Mary Brunkow, from the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and Dr. Ramsdell, now at a biotech firm in San Francisco, were studying an inherited immune disorder in mice and people that led to the discovery of a genetic factor vital for how regulatory T-cells function.

"The groundbreaking research has revealed how the immune system is controlled by regulatory T cells, stopping it from accidentally targeting the healthy cells," commented a leading physiology specialist.

"The research is a remarkable example of how basic biological research can have far-reaching consequences for public health."