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This year's prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded for transformative findings that clarify how the body's defense network targets harmful infections while protecting the body's own cells.

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

Their research uncovered unique "security guards" within the defense system that eliminate rogue defense cells that could attacking the body.

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

These laureates will share a monetary award worth 11 million Swedish kronor.

Crucial Findings

"The work has been essential for understanding how the body's defenses functions and why we do not all develop severe autoimmune diseases," commented the chair of the Nobel Committee.

This team's research explain a core mystery: How does the defense system defend us from countless infections while leaving our own tissues unharmed?

The immune system uses white blood cells that search for indicators of disease, even viruses and germs it has not met before.

These cells utilize detectors—known as receptors—that are produced randomly in countless variations.

That provides the immune system the capacity to combat a wide array of threats, but the randomness of the mechanism unavoidably creates immune cells that can target the host.

Protectors of the Body

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

This year's Nobel Prize honors the identification of T-reg cells—known as the body's "security guards"—which patrol the system to disarm any immune cells that assault the healthy cells.

It is known that this mechanism malfunctions in autoimmune diseases such as type-1 diabetes, MS, and RA.

The Nobel panel added, "These discoveries have laid the foundation for a new field of research and accelerated the creation of new therapies, for instance for cancer and immune disorders."

In malignancies, T-regs prevent the body from fighting the tumor, so studies are focused on lowering their quantity.

For autoimmune diseases, experiments are exploring boosting regulatory T-cells so the body is not being harmed. A similar approach could also be effective in minimizing the chances of organ transplant failure.

Innovative Experiments

Professor Sakaguchi, of Osaka University, conducted experiments on mice that had their immune gland extracted, leading to self-attack conditions.

The researcher showed that introducing defense cells from healthy mice could prevent the disease—implying there was a mechanism for preventing defenders from harming the host.

Dr. Brunkow, affiliated with the Institute for Systems Biology in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, currently at a biotech firm in San Francisco, were investigating an inherited autoimmune disease in mice and people that resulted in the discovery of a genetic factor critical for the way regulatory T-cells operate.

"The groundbreaking research has revealed how the body's defenses is controlled by T-reg cells, preventing it from accidentally targeting the body's own tissues," said a prominent physiology specialist.

"This research is a remarkable example of how fundamental physiological study can have broad implications for human health."