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This year's prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine has been granted for transformative discoveries that clarify how the body's defense network attacks dangerous infections while sparing the healthy tissues.

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

Their work uncovered unique "sentinels" within the defense system that eliminate rogue immune cells that could harming the organism.

The discoveries are now paving the way for innovative therapies for autoimmune diseases and cancer.

These laureates will share a prize fund valued at 11m Swedish kronor.

Decisive Discoveries

"The work has been essential for understanding how the immune system functions and the reason we do not all develop serious autoimmune diseases," commented the chair of the award panel.

The team's studies explain a fundamental mystery: In what way does the defense system protect us from numerous invaders while leaving our healthy cells intact?

The body's protection system employs white blood cells that scan for indicators of disease, even pathogens and germs it has not met before.

Such defenders utilize detectors—called receptors—that are generated randomly in countless combinations.

This gives the defense network the ability to combat a wide array of invaders, but the randomness of the process inevitably creates white blood cells that may target the host.

Protectors of the Immune System

Researchers earlier understood that some of these harmful white blood cells were eliminated in the immune organ—where white blood cells mature.

This year's award recognizes the identification of regulatory T-cells—described as the body's "peacekeepers"—which patrol the body to disarm other defenders that attack the healthy cells.

We know that this process malfunctions in autoimmune diseases such as juvenile diabetes, MS, and rheumatoid arthritis.

A prize committee stated, "The findings have laid the foundation for a new field of investigation and accelerated the development of innovative therapies, for instance for tumors and immune disorders."

Regarding cancer, regulatory T-cells block the system from fighting the tumor, so studies are aimed at reducing their numbers.

In self-attack disorders, trials are exploring increasing T-reg cells so the body is no longer being harmed. A comparable approach could also be effective in minimizing the chances of transplanted organ rejection.

Innovative Experiments

Professor Sakaguchi, from a Japanese institution, conducted tests on rodents that had their thymus extracted, leading to self-attack conditions.

He demonstrated that introducing defense cells from other animals could stop the disease—implying there was a system for preventing defenders from attacking the body.

Mary Brunkow, affiliated with the a research center in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, now at a biotech firm in San Francisco, were investigating an inherited autoimmune disease in mice and humans that resulted in the identification of a gene critical for how T-regs operate.

"Their groundbreaking research has uncovered how the immune system is controlled by regulatory T cells, preventing it from accidentally targeting the healthy cells," said a leading biological science specialist.

"The work is a striking illustration of how fundamental biological study can have broad consequences for human health."