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This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was granted for revolutionary findings that illuminate how the immune system targets harmful infections while protecting the healthy tissues.

Three renowned scientists—Japan's Prof. Sakaguchi and American scientists Dr. Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—received this accolade.

Their research identified specialized "security guards" within the immune system that remove rogue immune cells that could attacking the organism.

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

These winners will divide a prize fund worth 11m SEK.

Decisive Discoveries

"Their research has been decisive for comprehending how the immune system operates and why we don't all develop serious self-attack conditions," commented the head of the award panel.

The team's research explain a fundamental question: How does the defense system protect us from numerous infections while keeping our own tissues unharmed?

Our body's protection system uses white blood cells that search for signs of disease, including viruses and bacteria it has never encountered.

These defenders utilize detectors—known as receptors—that are produced randomly in a vast number of combinations.

That provides the immune system the capacity to fight a wide array of threats, but the unpredictability of the process inevitably creates immune cells that can target the host.

Security Guards of the Immune System

Researchers previously 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 award recognizes the discovery of T-reg cells—known as the immune system's "security guards"—which patrol the body to disarm other defenders that assault the body's own tissues.

It is known that this process fails in autoimmune diseases such as type-1 diabetes, MS, and rheumatoid arthritis.

The prize committee stated, "These discoveries have laid the foundation for a new field of research and spurred the development of new treatments, for instance for cancer and immune disorders."

Regarding cancer, regulatory T-cells block the system from fighting the growth, so research are aimed at reducing their quantity.

For autoimmune diseases, experiments are exploring increasing regulatory T-cells so the body is not under attack. A similar approach could also be useful in minimizing the chances of transplanted organ failure.

Innovative Studies

Prof Shimon Sakaguchi, of a Japanese institution, performed tests on rodents that had their thymus extracted, causing autoimmune disease.

He showed that introducing immune cells from healthy animals could stop the illness—implying there was a system for blocking defenders from attacking the host.

Mary 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 immune disorder in mice and people that led to the discovery of a gene vital for how regulatory T-cells function.

"Their pioneering research has uncovered how the body's defenses is kept in check by regulatory T cells, preventing it from accidentally targeting the healthy cells," said a leading biological science expert.

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