Purpose of review: An increasing body of evidence indicates that bio-energetic metabolism of activated T cells is a potential target to control the autoimmune response in type 1 diabetes (T1D).
Recent findings: T-cell activation and proliferation is linked to the cell capacity to provide sufficient energy and biosynthesis molecules to support T-cell growth and division. This makes T cells susceptible to metabolic inhibition for the control of the T-cell response. There is a wide therapeutic arsenal of metabolic inhibitors, including novel classes of drugs that have become recently available. With the current knowledge and availability of metabolic inhibitors, we are now in the position to design a metabolic inhibition strategy to determine whether targeting of autoreactive T cells is an effective strategy to control the process of β-cell destruction in T1D.
Keywords: Autoimmunity; Immune-metabolism; T cells; Type 1 diabetes.