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This year's prestigious award in medical science was granted for revolutionary findings that clarify how the immune system attacks dangerous infections while sparing the body's own cells.

Three renowned scientists—Japan's Shimon Sakaguchi and US scientists Dr. Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—received this accolade.

The work identified specialized "sentinels" within the defense system that eliminate malfunctioning defense cells capable of attacking the body.

The findings are now paving the way for new treatments for autoimmune diseases and cancer.

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

Crucial Findings

"Their work has been essential for understanding how the body's defenses operates and why we don't all develop severe self-attack conditions," commented the chair of the Nobel Committee.

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

Our immune system uses white blood cells that search for indicators of infection, even pathogens and germs it has not met before.

Such cells utilize detectors—called recognition units—that are generated by chance in a vast number of combinations.

That gives the immune system the capacity to fight a wide array of threats, but the randomness of the process inevitably produces white blood cells that can target the host.

Protectors of the Body

Researchers previously knew that a portion of these harmful white blood cells were destroyed in the thymus—where immune cells mature.

The latest award honors the discovery of regulatory T-cells—described as the immune system's "security guards"—which travel through the body to neutralize any immune cells that attack the healthy cells.

We know that this process fails in self-attack conditions such as juvenile diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

The Nobel panel stated, "The findings have established a novel area of research and accelerated the development of innovative therapies, for instance for tumors and autoimmune diseases."

Regarding cancer, T-regs block the system from attacking the growth, so research are aimed at lowering their numbers.

For autoimmune diseases, experiments are testing boosting T-reg cells so the body is not being harmed. A similar method could also be effective in reducing the chances of organ transplant failure.

Innovative Studies

Prof Shimon Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, performed experiments on rodents that had their immune gland removed, causing self-attack conditions.

He showed that injecting defense cells from other mice could stop the disease—suggesting there was a system for preventing immune cells from attacking the host.

Dr. Brunkow, affiliated with the Institute for Systems Biology in a US city, and Dr. Ramsdell, now at a biotech firm in San Francisco, were investigating an inherited autoimmune disease in rodents and people that resulted in the identification of a gene vital for the way regulatory T-cells function.

"Their groundbreaking research has revealed how the body's defenses is controlled by T-reg cells, preventing it from mistakenly attacking the body's own tissues," said a prominent biological science expert.

"The work is a remarkable illustration of how basic physiological research can have far-reaching consequences for public health."