Biomarkers and immune-modulating therapies for Type 2 diabetes

Recent advances in understanding the etiology of obesity, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes (T2D) have established involvement of the immune system. These developments highlight the potential of immunomodulatory therapies for treatment of these conditions. Here, we discuss current and new immunotherapeutic strategies for the treatment of T2D, the need for stratification of patients based on immune and autoimmune status, and biomarkers for evaluating treatment efficiency. The time has come to re-evaluate the clinical management of T2D patients using metabolic parameters alone, and to realize that patients should be stratified based on their immune and/or autoimmune status prior to initiation of therapy to realize fully the potential of immunomodulatory strategies for T2D.