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This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was granted for transformative discoveries that illuminate how the immune system attacks harmful infections while protecting the body's own cells.

A trio of renowned researchers—Japan's Shimon Sakaguchi and American experts Dr. Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—share this accolade.

The research identified unique "security guards" within the immune system that remove rogue immune cells that could attacking the body.

These discoveries are now enabling innovative treatments for autoimmune diseases and cancer.

The winners will divide a monetary award valued at 11m SEK.

Crucial Discoveries

"The research has been essential for understanding how the immune system functions and why we do not all develop severe self-attack conditions," commented the head of the award panel.

The team's research explain a fundamental question: How does the immune system protect us from numerous invaders while leaving our healthy cells unharmed?

The immune system employs white blood cells that search for signs of disease, including viruses and bacteria it has not met before.

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

This gives the immune system the capacity to fight a wide array of threats, but the unpredictability of the process unavoidably produces immune cells that can attack the body.

Security Guards of the Body

Scientists previously knew that some of these harmful defense cells were destroyed in the thymus—where immune cells mature.

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

We know that this mechanism malfunctions in autoimmune diseases such as type-1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and RA.

The Nobel panel added, "The discoveries have established a novel area of investigation and spurred the development of innovative therapies, for instance for cancer and autoimmune diseases."

Regarding cancer, regulatory T-cells prevent the system from fighting the tumor, so research are aimed at lowering their quantity.

For autoimmune diseases, experiments are exploring increasing regulatory T-cells so the body is not being harmed. A comparable method could also be useful in reducing the chances of transplanted organ rejection.

Innovative Studies

Professor Sakaguchi, of a Japanese institution, conducted experiments on rodents that had their immune gland extracted, causing autoimmune disease.

He demonstrated that introducing immune cells from healthy mice could stop the illness—suggesting there was a system for preventing defenders from attacking the body.

Mary Brunkow, from the a research center in a US city, and Dr. Ramsdell, currently at a biotech firm in San Francisco, were studying an inherited immune disorder in mice and humans that led to the identification of a gene critical for the way T-regs operate.

"Their groundbreaking research has uncovered how the body's defenses is kept in check by regulatory T cells, preventing it from accidentally attacking the healthy cells," commented a leading physiology specialist.

"This work is a striking illustration of how basic biological research can have broad implications for human health."