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The prestigious award in medical science was granted for transformative findings that illuminate how the body's defense network attacks harmful infections while sparing the healthy tissues.

Three esteemed researchers—Japan's Prof. Sakaguchi and US scientists Mary Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—share this honor.

Their work uncovered unique "security guards" within the immune system that remove malfunctioning immune cells that could harming the organism.

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

The laureates will share a monetary award valued at 11m SEK.

Decisive Discoveries

"The research has been essential for comprehending how the immune system operates and the reason we do not all suffer from severe autoimmune diseases," stated the chair of the award panel.

The trio's studies address a core question: How does the immune system defend us from numerous infections while leaving our healthy cells intact?

Our immune system uses immune cells that search for indicators of infection, even viruses and germs it has not met before.

Such cells employ sensors—known as receptors—that are generated randomly in countless combinations.

This gives the defense network the ability to fight a broad range of threats, but the unpredictability of the mechanism unavoidably creates white blood cells that can attack the host.

Security Guards of the Immune System

Researchers previously knew that a portion of these problematic white blood cells were destroyed in the thymus—where immune cells develop.

This year's award honors the identification of T-reg cells—described as the body's "security guards"—which patrol the body to disarm any defenders that attack the healthy cells.

It is known that this mechanism fails in self-attack conditions such as juvenile diabetes, MS, and RA.

The Nobel panel stated, "These findings have established a novel area of investigation and accelerated the creation of new therapies, for example for tumors and autoimmune diseases."

In cancer, T-regs prevent the body from fighting the growth, so studies are aimed at lowering their numbers.

For self-attack disorders, trials are testing boosting regulatory T-cells so the body is no longer under attack. A comparable approach could also be effective in reducing the chances of transplanted organ failure.

Pioneering Experiments

Professor Shimon Sakaguchi, of a Japanese institution, conducted experiments on mice that had their immune gland removed, causing self-attack conditions.

He showed that injecting defense cells from healthy animals could prevent the illness—suggesting there was a system for preventing defenders from harming the host.

Dr. Brunkow, from the a research center in Seattle, and Fred Ramsdell, now at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in a California city, were studying an inherited immune disorder in rodents and people that led to the discovery of a genetic factor critical for how T-regs operate.

"The pioneering research has uncovered how the immune system is controlled by T-reg cells, stopping it from accidentally targeting the healthy cells," commented a leading biological science expert.

"The work is a remarkable illustration of how basic biological research can have far-reaching implications for public health."