Immunotherapy in type 1 diabetes: Novel pathway to the future ahead

Table 2 Antigen-specific immunotherapies- strengths and weaknesses

Strategies	Immunological target	Advantages	Disadvantages
Autoantigenic peptides and proteins	APCs	Biocompatible; possibility to conjugate to a vehicle	Short half-life; adjuvant required
Autoantigen-encoding plasmid DNA	APCs	Long-lived effect	Gene therapy
Antigen-loaded cell-based strategies	Autoreactive T cells	Powerful immunoregulatory effect	Leukapheresis required; personalized medicine
Antigen-loaded nanoparticles and liposomes	APCs and T cells	Customizable; powerful immunoregulatory effect; might act by biomimicry	Synthetic; preclinical developmental phase

APCs: Antigen-presenting cells.