Ixekizumab Diabetes Intervention Trial (I-DIT)

Although the clinical onset of type 1 diabetes (T1D) is acute, the progression of T1D occurs over many years often in a patchy manner with inflammation in certain lobes of the pancreas, leaving other lobes unaffected and long-lasting beta cells remain functional decades after diagnosis. Psoriasis share several aspects with T1D, e.g. the patchy inflammatory infiltrate consisting of tissue-resident memory (TRM) T cells, leaky blood vessels that facilitate leukocyte migration and the increased risk for systemic conditions. Moreover, interleukin (IL)-17 has shown to be increased in both persons with psoriasis and T1D. Activation of IL-17/IL-22 pathway is viewed to be both a hallmark of psoriasis and human T1D. Ixekizumab, an anti-IL17 biological agent, has shown marked therapeutic value in the treatment of subjects with psoriasis in several randomized trials and is currently an approved clinical therapy. Due to the many similarities in the current view of pathogenesis and manifestation of T1D and psoriasis it is possible that Ixekizumab can also influence the disease process of T1D.