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This year's prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for transformative discoveries that illuminate how the immune system targets dangerous pathogens while sparing the body's own cells.

A trio of esteemed scientists—from Japan Shimon Sakaguchi and American experts Mary Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—received this accolade.

The work uncovered unique "security guards" within the immune system that remove malfunctioning defense cells capable of harming the organism.

These discoveries 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

"Their work has been decisive for understanding how the immune system operates and the reason we don't all develop severe self-attack conditions," commented the chair of the award panel.

This trio's research address a fundamental question: In what way does the defense system defend us from numerous infections while leaving our healthy cells intact?

The body's protection system uses immune cells that search for signs of infection, even pathogens and bacteria it has not met before.

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

This provides the immune system the ability to combat a broad range of threats, but the randomness of the mechanism inevitably creates white blood cells that can target the host.

Security Guards of the Body

Scientists previously understood that a portion of these problematic white blood cells were eliminated in the immune organ—where immune cells mature.

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

It is known that this process fails in autoimmune diseases such as type-1 diabetes, MS, and rheumatoid arthritis.

The prize committee added, "The discoveries have laid the foundation for a novel area of investigation and accelerated the development of new treatments, for example for cancer and autoimmune diseases."

In malignancies, regulatory T-cells prevent the body from fighting the growth, so research are aimed at reducing their numbers.

For autoimmune diseases, trials are testing increasing regulatory T-cells so the organism is no longer being harmed. A comparable method could also be useful in reducing the risks of transplanted organ failure.

Pioneering Studies

Prof Sakaguchi, from a Japanese institution, conducted experiments on mice that had their immune gland removed, leading to self-attack conditions.

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

Dr. Brunkow, affiliated with the Institute for Systems Biology in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, now at a biotech firm in a California city, were investigating an genetic autoimmune disease in rodents and humans that resulted in the discovery of a genetic factor vital for how regulatory T-cells function.

"Their pioneering work has revealed how the immune system is kept in check by T-reg cells, stopping it from mistakenly attacking the healthy cells," commented a prominent physiology expert.

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