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This year's prestigious award in medical science has been awarded for revolutionary findings that illuminate how the immune system attacks harmful infections while protecting the body's own cells.

Three renowned scientists—from Japan Prof. Sakaguchi and US scientists Dr. Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—received this honor.

The work uncovered specialized "sentinels" within the defense system that eliminate malfunctioning defense cells capable of harming the body.

The findings are now enabling new treatments for immune disorders and cancer.

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

Decisive Discoveries

"Their work has been decisive for comprehending how the body's defenses functions and why we don't all develop serious autoimmune diseases," commented the chair of the award panel.

The trio's studies address a core mystery: How does the defense system defend us from countless invaders while keeping our healthy cells unharmed?

The immune system uses immune cells that scan for indicators of disease, even viruses and bacteria it has not met before.

These defenders utilize detectors—known as receptors—that are generated by chance in a vast number of variations.

That gives the defense network the ability to fight a wide array of invaders, but the randomness of the mechanism inevitably creates white blood cells that can attack the body.

Security Guards of the Body

Scientists previously knew that some of these harmful defense cells were eliminated in the thymus—the site where white blood cells mature.

The latest Nobel Prize honors the discovery of regulatory T-cells—known as the body's "peacekeepers"—which patrol the body to neutralize any immune cells that assault the body's own tissues.

We know that this process 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 investigation and accelerated the development of innovative treatments, for instance for tumors and autoimmune diseases."

In cancer, T-regs prevent the body from attacking the growth, so research are focused on reducing their quantity.

For autoimmune diseases, experiments are exploring increasing regulatory T-cells so the organism is not being harmed. A similar approach could also be useful in reducing the chances of organ transplant rejection.

Pioneering Studies

Prof Shimon Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, conducted experiments on mice that had their thymus extracted, causing self-attack conditions.

He showed that injecting defense cells from healthy animals could stop the disease—suggesting there was a system for preventing immune cells from harming the host.

Mary Brunkow, from the Institute for Systems Biology in a US city, and Dr. Ramsdell, now at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco, were studying an genetic immune disorder in mice and humans that resulted in the discovery of a gene critical for how T-regs function.

"Their groundbreaking work has uncovered how the body's defenses is kept in check by regulatory T cells, preventing it from accidentally attacking the healthy cells," said a prominent biological science expert.

"The research is a striking example of how basic biological study can have far-reaching implications for human health."