Vaccines For Type 1 Diabetes: Prevention or Reversal?

Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is an autoimmune disease which leads to the destruction of pancreatic β-cells, thereby causing insufficient insulin production. Globally, around 98, 200 children and adolescents below 15 years of age and almost 128,900 subjects below 20 years of age develop T1DM annually, along with severe complications deteriorating their quality of life. In India alone, around 15,900 incident cases below 15 years have reported annually. Hence, its prevention and reversal are significant. Unlike other chronic diseases, T1DM involves the presence of various autoantigens, which can be targeted by proper immunisation. The development of reliable immuno-regulatory surrogate markers would be of great benefit. Vaccines can be one of such strategies in the journey to prevent T1DM. It would not only benefit greatly to reduce the sufferings caused due to diabetic complications but could also help to reverse T1DM, by modulating the autoantigenic immunological reactions and prevent further degradation of pancreatic β-cells. This review collates a wide range of information related to the vaccine studies conducted in animal and human models to prevent and reverse T1DM.