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This year's Nobel Prize in medical science was awarded for transformative findings that clarify how the immune system targets dangerous pathogens while sparing the body's own cells.

A trio of esteemed researchers—Japan's Prof. Sakaguchi and American experts Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—share this honor.

The work identified specialized "sentinels" within the defense system that remove rogue immune cells that could harming the body.

These findings are now enabling new therapies for immune disorders and malignancies.

The winners will divide a monetary award worth 11 million Swedish kronor.

Decisive Findings

"Their research has been essential for understanding how the body's defenses functions and why we don't all suffer from severe self-attack conditions," stated the chair of the award panel.

This team's studies explain a fundamental question: How does the defense system defend us from numerous invaders while leaving our healthy cells unharmed?

The immune system uses immune cells that scan for indicators of disease, including viruses and bacteria it has never encountered.

Such defenders employ sensors—called recognition units—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 inevitably produces white blood cells that can target the host.

Security Guards of the Immune System

Researchers previously understood that some of these harmful white blood cells were destroyed in the thymus—the site where immune cells mature.

The latest award recognizes the discovery of regulatory T-cells—known as the body's "peacekeepers"—which travel through the system to disarm other immune cells that attack the body's own tissues.

We know that this mechanism malfunctions in autoimmune diseases such as juvenile diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

The prize committee added, "These discoveries have established a new field of investigation and spurred the creation of new therapies, for example for tumors and immune disorders."

In malignancies, regulatory T-cells block the system from fighting the tumor, so research are focused on reducing their quantity.

In autoimmune diseases, experiments are testing boosting T-reg cells so the organism is not being harmed. A comparable method could also be useful in reducing the risks of transplanted organ failure.

Pioneering Studies

Prof Shimon Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, performed experiments on mice that had their thymus extracted, causing autoimmune disease.

He demonstrated that introducing defense cells from healthy mice could prevent the disease—implying there was a mechanism for blocking immune cells from harming the host.

Dr. Brunkow, affiliated with the a research center in a US city, and Dr. Ramsdell, currently at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco, were studying an genetic autoimmune disease in rodents and people that resulted in the identification of a genetic factor vital for how regulatory T-cells function.

"Their groundbreaking work has uncovered how the body's defenses is controlled by T-reg cells, preventing it from accidentally attacking the healthy cells," commented a leading physiology specialist.

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