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This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for revolutionary discoveries that clarify how the immune system attacks harmful pathogens while sparing the body's own cells.

Three esteemed scientists—from Japan Prof. Sakaguchi and American scientists Mary Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—share this accolade.

Their research uncovered unique "sentinels" within the immune system that remove malfunctioning defense cells capable of harming the body.

The discoveries are now paving the way for innovative treatments for immune disorders and cancer.

These winners will share a prize fund valued at 11m SEK.

Decisive Discoveries

"The work has been decisive for understanding how the immune system functions and why we don't all suffer from serious self-attack conditions," stated the chair of the award panel.

The team's studies address a core mystery: How does the defense system protect us from numerous invaders while leaving our healthy cells unharmed?

Our immune system uses immune cells that scan for signs of infection, even pathogens and bacteria it has never encountered.

These cells employ sensors—known as receptors—that are generated randomly in a vast number of combinations.

This provides the defense network the ability to combat a broad range of invaders, but the unpredictability of the mechanism inevitably produces white blood cells that may attack the body.

Security Guards of the Immune System

Researchers earlier knew that some of these problematic white blood cells were eliminated in the immune organ—the site where white blood cells develop.

The latest award honors the discovery of regulatory T-cells—described as the body's "peacekeepers"—which travel through the body to neutralize other immune cells that assault the healthy cells.

We know that this mechanism malfunctions in autoimmune diseases such as type-1 diabetes, MS, and rheumatoid arthritis.

The Nobel panel added, "The findings have laid the foundation for a new field of research and accelerated the creation of new therapies, for instance for cancer and immune disorders."

Regarding malignancies, regulatory T-cells prevent the system from attacking the growth, so research are focused on lowering their quantity.

In autoimmune diseases, experiments are testing boosting T-reg cells so the body is not under attack. A comparable approach could also be effective in reducing the chances of organ transplant failure.

Pioneering Studies

Professor Shimon Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, conducted tests on rodents that had their thymus removed, leading to self-attack conditions.

He demonstrated that injecting immune cells from other animals could prevent the disease—suggesting there was a system for preventing immune cells from harming the body.

Mary Brunkow, from the a research center in Seattle, and Dr. Ramsdell, now at a biotech firm in San Francisco, were studying an genetic autoimmune disease in mice and humans that led to the identification of a gene vital for the way T-regs function.

"Their groundbreaking work has uncovered how the immune system is controlled by regulatory T cells, preventing it from mistakenly attacking the healthy cells," said a leading physiology expert.

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