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This year's Nobel Prize in medical science was awarded for revolutionary findings that illuminate how the immune system attacks dangerous infections while protecting the healthy tissues.

Three esteemed scientists—Japan's Shimon Sakaguchi and American experts Dr. Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—share this honor.

Their work identified unique "sentinels" within the immune system that remove rogue immune cells capable of attacking the organism.

These discoveries are now enabling innovative therapies for immune disorders and malignancies.

These laureates will share a prize fund worth 11m SEK.

Decisive Findings

"The work has been decisive for understanding how the body's defenses functions and why we do not all develop severe self-attack conditions," commented the head of the Nobel Committee.

This trio's research address a core question: How does the defense system protect us from countless infections while leaving our own tissues unharmed?

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

Such defenders employ detectors—called receptors—that are produced by chance in a vast number of combinations.

This provides the defense network the ability to fight a broad range of invaders, but the randomness of the process inevitably produces immune cells that can attack the host.

Security Guards of the Immune System

Scientists earlier understood that some of these harmful white blood cells were eliminated in the thymus—where immune cells develop.

This year's award honors the identification of T-reg cells—known as the body's "security guards"—which travel through the system to neutralize other defenders that attack the body's own tissues.

We know that this mechanism fails in self-attack conditions such as type-1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and RA.

The prize committee added, "These findings have laid the foundation for a novel area of research and spurred the creation of new treatments, for example for tumors and immune disorders."

In cancer, regulatory T-cells block the body from fighting the growth, so research are aimed at lowering their numbers.

For autoimmune diseases, experiments are exploring boosting T-reg cells so the body is not being harmed. A comparable approach could also be effective in minimizing the risks of transplanted organ rejection.

Pioneering Experiments

Prof Sakaguchi, of a Japanese institution, conducted tests on mice that had their thymus extracted, causing self-attack conditions.

He showed that introducing defense cells from other animals could stop the disease—suggesting there was a system for blocking immune cells from attacking the body.

Dr. Brunkow, from the a research center in a US city, and Dr. Ramsdell, now at a biotech firm in a California city, were investigating an genetic autoimmune disease in mice and people that led to the discovery of a genetic factor critical for how regulatory T-cells function.

"The pioneering research has uncovered how the immune system is kept in check by T-reg cells, preventing it from mistakenly attacking the healthy cells," said a prominent physiology expert.

"This research is a remarkable illustration of how basic biological study can have broad consequences for human health."