Type 1 diabetes (TIDM) is due to insulin deficiency which occurs when the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. It is the most common form of diabetes in children and it is managed with lifelong Insulin therapy for survival. Insulin notwithstanding, efforts are being made to develop other therapeutic strategies. One of such strategies is Immunotherapy which re-programs the immune system. Although with a track record of notched up successes against cancers and autoimmune diseases, immunotherapy has only shown limited success against TIDM in clinical trials. This review looks at the literature on the prospect of immunotherapy with recommendations for future immunotherapy trials in T1DM.
Literature Review: Google Scholar and PubMed search of Publications on TIDM from 2000 -2019 were reviewed.
Overall, most of the studies demonstrate preliminary promising results.
Future clinical trials should focus on strategies that address fundamental aspects of clinical immunology of TIDM with efforts to incorporate precision medicine trial design.