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This year's prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded for revolutionary findings that illuminate how the body's defense network attacks dangerous pathogens while sparing the body's own cells.

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

The work identified specialized "security guards" within the immune system that eliminate rogue immune cells that could harming the body.

These findings are now enabling innovative therapies for autoimmune diseases and malignancies.

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

Crucial Findings

"The work has been essential for understanding how the body's defenses operates and why we do not all suffer from severe autoimmune diseases," commented the chair of the award panel.

The team's studies explain a core question: In what way does the immune system protect us from numerous infections while leaving our healthy cells intact?

The body's protection system employs white blood cells that scan for signs of infection, including viruses and germs it has not met before.

Such defenders employ detectors—known as recognition units—that are generated by chance in countless combinations.

This provides the defense network the ability to combat a broad range of threats, but the unpredictability of the mechanism unavoidably creates immune cells that can attack the body.

Security Guards of the Immune System

Scientists previously knew that a portion of these problematic defense cells were eliminated in the immune organ—where immune cells mature.

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

It is known that this process fails in self-attack conditions such as juvenile diabetes, MS, and rheumatoid arthritis.

A prize committee added, "The discoveries have established a novel area of research and accelerated the development of innovative treatments, for instance for tumors and immune disorders."

In cancer, T-regs block the system from fighting the growth, so research are focused on reducing their numbers.

For self-attack disorders, experiments are testing increasing T-reg cells so the body is not being harmed. A similar method could also be useful in minimizing the risks of organ transplant rejection.

Pioneering Experiments

Professor Sakaguchi, from a Japanese institution, performed tests on mice that had their thymus extracted, causing self-attack conditions.

He demonstrated that introducing immune cells from healthy mice could prevent the disease—suggesting there was a mechanism for blocking defenders from attacking the body.

Mary Brunkow, affiliated with the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and Fred Ramsdell, currently at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in a California city, were investigating an genetic autoimmune disease in rodents and humans that resulted in the discovery of a gene vital for how T-regs function.

"Their groundbreaking work has uncovered how the body's defenses is kept in check by regulatory T cells, stopping it from accidentally attacking the body's own tissues," commented a prominent physiology expert.

"This work is a remarkable illustration of how fundamental physiological study can have far-reaching consequences for human health."