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This year's Nobel Prize in medical science was awarded for revolutionary discoveries that clarify how the body's defense network attacks dangerous pathogens while protecting the healthy tissues.

A trio of esteemed scientists—Japan's Prof. Sakaguchi and American scientists Mary Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—received this accolade.

Their research identified specialized "security guards" within the defense system that eliminate malfunctioning defense cells capable of harming the organism.

The discoveries are now paving the way for new therapies for immune disorders and malignancies.

The laureates will divide a prize fund valued at 11 million Swedish kronor.

Decisive Discoveries

"The research has been decisive for understanding how the body's defenses operates and why we do not all develop serious self-attack conditions," commented the chair of the award panel.

The team's research explain a core question: In what way does the immune system defend us from countless invaders while keeping our own tissues intact?

Our immune system employs immune cells that search for signs of infection, including viruses and germs it has not met before.

Such defenders utilize detectors—called recognition units—that are generated randomly in countless variations.

This gives the immune system the ability to fight a broad range of threats, but the randomness of the process unavoidably creates immune cells that may target the body.

Protectors of the Immune System

Scientists previously understood that some of these problematic white blood cells were destroyed in the immune organ—where white blood cells mature.

This year's Nobel Prize recognizes the discovery of T-reg cells—described as the body's "security guards"—which patrol the system to disarm other immune cells that assault the body's own tissues.

We know that this mechanism malfunctions in autoimmune diseases such as juvenile diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

The prize committee added, "These findings have laid the foundation for a new field of research and accelerated the creation of new therapies, for example for cancer and autoimmune diseases."

Regarding malignancies, regulatory T-cells block the system from fighting the growth, so studies are focused on reducing their quantity.

For self-attack disorders, experiments are testing boosting T-reg cells so the organism is no longer under attack. A comparable method could also be useful in reducing the chances of transplanted organ rejection.

Pioneering Experiments

Professor Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, conducted tests on rodents that had their immune gland extracted, leading to autoimmune disease.

The researcher demonstrated that injecting immune cells from other mice could stop the disease—suggesting there was a mechanism for blocking immune cells from harming the host.

Dr. Brunkow, affiliated with the a research center in a US city, and Fred Ramsdell, now at a biotech firm in a California city, were studying an inherited immune disorder in mice and humans that resulted in the discovery of a gene vital for the way regulatory T-cells operate.

"The groundbreaking work has revealed how the body's defenses is kept in check by regulatory T cells, stopping it from accidentally targeting the healthy cells," commented a leading biological science specialist.

"The work is a striking illustration of how fundamental physiological study can have far-reaching implications for public health."