As T cell toggle through their various life cycle, certain distinct biological changes occur that can be specifically targeted with small molecule drugs to target these cells for cell death. This is particularly true of activated autoreactive T cells. We have developed a combination of small molecular drugs that can target activated T cells and push these cells into apoptosis during (re-)activation. We propose here to test if these drugs can specifically target islet reactive T cells from T1D patients and pre-diabetic individuals while specifically sparing Treg and T memory cell subsets.
