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This year's prestigious award in medical science has been granted for revolutionary discoveries that clarify how the immune system attacks harmful infections while sparing the healthy tissues.

Three esteemed researchers—Japan's Prof. Sakaguchi and American experts Mary Brunkow and Dr. Ramsdell—share this accolade.

Their research uncovered specialized "sentinels" within the defense system that remove rogue defense cells capable of attacking the body.

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

These laureates will divide a prize fund worth 11m SEK.

Crucial Discoveries

"Their work has been decisive for understanding how the immune system functions and why we do not all develop severe autoimmune diseases," commented the chair of the award panel.

The trio's studies explain a fundamental question: In what way does the immune system defend us from countless infections while leaving our healthy cells intact?

Our immune system employs immune cells that search for indicators of infection, even viruses and bacteria it has not met before.

These defenders employ detectors—known as receptors—that are generated by chance in countless variations.

That gives the defense network the capacity to fight a wide array of threats, but the randomness of the process inevitably creates white blood cells that may attack the host.

Protectors of the Immune System

Researchers earlier knew that some of these problematic defense cells were destroyed in the thymus—the site where white blood cells develop.

This year's award recognizes the identification of T-reg cells—known as the immune system's "peacekeepers"—which travel through the system to neutralize other immune cells that attack the healthy cells.

It is known that this process fails in self-attack conditions such as type-1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and RA.

A prize committee stated, "These discoveries have laid the foundation for a novel area of research and accelerated the development of innovative therapies, for example for cancer and autoimmune diseases."

In malignancies, T-regs block the body from fighting the growth, so research are aimed at reducing their quantity.

In self-attack disorders, trials are testing boosting T-reg cells so the body is not being harmed. A comparable method could also be effective in minimizing the chances of organ transplant failure.

Pioneering Experiments

Prof Shimon Sakaguchi, from Osaka University, conducted experiments on rodents that had their thymus extracted, causing self-attack conditions.

The researcher demonstrated that injecting immune cells from other animals could prevent the disease—implying there was a mechanism for blocking defenders from harming the host.

Mary Brunkow, affiliated with the Institute for Systems Biology in a US city, and Dr. Ramsdell, currently at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco, were investigating an genetic autoimmune disease in mice and humans that led to the discovery of a genetic factor vital for the way regulatory T-cells operate.

"Their pioneering work has uncovered how the immune system is kept in check by T-reg cells, preventing it from mistakenly attacking the healthy cells," commented a leading physiology expert.

"The work is a striking example of how fundamental physiological research can have far-reaching implications for human health."