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The prestigious award in medical science has been granted for revolutionary discoveries that clarify how the immune system targets dangerous infections while protecting the healthy tissues.

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

Their work uncovered unique "sentinels" within the immune system that remove rogue defense cells that could attacking the body.

These discoveries are now enabling innovative treatments for immune disorders and cancer.

These laureates will share a prize fund worth 11m SEK.

Decisive Findings

"Their research has been decisive for understanding how the body's defenses functions and the reason we don't all develop serious self-attack conditions," stated the head of the Nobel Committee.

The team's studies explain a core question: How does the immune system defend us from countless infections while leaving our own tissues intact?

Our immune system employs white blood cells that scan for signs of disease, even viruses and bacteria it has not met before.

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

That gives the defense network the ability to combat a wide array of threats, but the unpredictability of the mechanism unavoidably creates immune cells that can attack the host.

Protectors of the Body

Researchers earlier knew that a portion of these problematic white blood cells were eliminated in the immune organ—the site where white blood cells develop.

This year's Nobel Prize recognizes the identification of regulatory T-cells—described as the body's "security guards"—which travel through the system to neutralize other defenders that attack the healthy cells.

It is known that this process fails in autoimmune diseases such as juvenile diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

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

Regarding malignancies, T-regs prevent the system from fighting the tumor, so research are aimed at reducing their numbers.

For self-attack disorders, trials are testing increasing regulatory T-cells so the body is not being harmed. A comparable approach could also be useful in reducing the chances of transplanted organ rejection.

Pioneering Studies

Prof Shimon Sakaguchi, of Osaka University, performed tests on rodents that had their immune gland removed, leading to autoimmune disease.

He showed that injecting immune cells from other mice could stop the disease—implying there was a mechanism for preventing defenders from attacking the host.

Mary Brunkow, affiliated with the a research center in a US city, and Dr. Ramsdell, now at a biotech firm in a California city, were studying an genetic immune disorder in mice and people that led to the discovery of a genetic factor vital for the way T-regs operate.

"The pioneering work has uncovered how the immune system is controlled by T-reg cells, stopping it from mistakenly attacking the body's own tissues," said a leading physiology expert.

"The research is a striking illustration of how basic physiological research can have far-reaching implications for public health."