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This year's prestigious award in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for revolutionary discoveries that clarify how the immune system targets dangerous infections while sparing the body's own cells.

A trio of renowned researchers—from Japan Shimon Sakaguchi and American experts Dr. Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell—share this honor.

The research uncovered specialized "sentinels" within the immune system that remove rogue defense cells that could harming the organism.

The findings are now paving the way for innovative therapies for autoimmune diseases and malignancies.

These winners will share a monetary award valued at 11m Swedish kronor.

Crucial Findings

"The work has been decisive for understanding how the body's defenses functions and why we don't all develop serious autoimmune diseases," commented the head of the award panel.

The team's research explain a core mystery: In what way does the defense system defend us from numerous invaders while keeping our healthy cells intact?

Our body's protection system uses immune cells that scan for indicators of disease, even pathogens and bacteria it has never encountered.

Such cells utilize detectors—known as receptors—that are produced by chance in countless combinations.

That gives the defense network the capacity to fight a wide array of invaders, but the randomness of the mechanism inevitably produces white blood cells that can target the host.

Protectors of the Body

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

The latest award honors the discovery of T-reg cells—known as the immune system's "security guards"—which patrol the system to neutralize other immune cells that attack the healthy cells.

It is known that this mechanism malfunctions in autoimmune diseases such as juvenile diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and RA.

A prize committee added, "The findings have laid the foundation for a novel area of investigation and accelerated the creation of new therapies, for example for tumors and autoimmune diseases."

In cancer, regulatory T-cells prevent the body from attacking the tumor, so research are aimed at lowering their quantity.

For self-attack disorders, experiments are testing increasing regulatory T-cells so the organism is not being harmed. A similar approach could also be effective in minimizing the chances of transplanted organ rejection.

Innovative Studies

Professor Sakaguchi, from a Japanese institution, performed experiments on mice that had their immune gland removed, causing autoimmune disease.

The researcher demonstrated that introducing immune cells from healthy animals could stop the disease—implying there was a system for preventing immune cells from attacking the body.

Mary Brunkow, affiliated with the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, and Fred Ramsdell, currently at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco, were studying an genetic autoimmune disease in mice and humans that led to the discovery of a gene critical for the way T-regs function.

"The groundbreaking research has revealed how the body's defenses is controlled by T-reg cells, stopping it from accidentally attacking the body's own tissues," commented a prominent biological science specialist.

"This research is a striking example of how basic physiological study can have broad implications for public health."