Type 1 diabetes immunological tolerance and immunotherapy

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a chronic autoimmune disorder associated, in genetically susceptible individuals, with the generation and activation of autoreactive CD4+ and CD8+ T cells that infiltrate the pancreas and selectively destroy the insulin-producing β-cells in the islets. The impairment of T-cell tolerance in T1D has been reported at many levels including abnormal self-antigen presentation in the thymus and periphery, autoreactive T-cell resistance to apoptosis, unbalanced immunoregulatory T-cell function, and deregulation of Th1/Th2/Th17 axes. Despite the identification of type1 diabetes-associated autoantigens and their derived CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell epitopes, numerous antigen-specific immunoregulatory therapies have failed when evaluated for their utility in the prevention and treatment of T1D. In this special issue, we invite authors to submit original research and review articles highlighting the recent advances that have broadened our understanding of immunological tolerance and T1D vaccine strategies. Also, we welcome papers that seek to define immunoregulatory properties of T cells to provide new insights as to their potential for clinical use. We are interested in articles that explore salient aspects of T1D-associated tolerance and immunotherapy. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

* T1D-associated central and peripheral tolerance mechanisms
* Elucidating the functional impairment in immunoregulatory T-cell function in T1D
* New animal models to test and understand dysfunctional immunity in T1D
* Identification of new beta islet-specific autoantigens
* Development of antigen-based immunotherapeutic strategies to prevent or treat T1D
* Clinical trials with novel antigen-specific immunoregulatory therapies