Mathematical model for BCG-based treatment of type 1 diabetes

Abstract

This work introduces the first model of immunotherapy treatment, namely the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine, for Type 1 Diabetes (T1D). The model takes into consideration the interaction network between multiple immune cell types and compartments. A set of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) is introduced to capture the connectivity between these variables and the clinical presentation of the disease. Four subsets of the T1D mice and healthy controls that exhibit normal and high-level glucose consumption are evaluated using the proposed model. Numerical results obtained for mice suggest that BCG treatment of the T1D patients that follow healthy eating habits normalizes glucose to levels observed in non-diabetic controls. Furthermore, glucose consumption profoundly influences disease progression. This outcome suggests that immunotherapy may modulate molecular and cellular manifestations of the disease but it does not eliminate T1D. Of note, our data, obtained from numerical simulations, indicate that the BCG immunotherapy treatment may benefit healthy controls on a high-glucose diet and can be used as a tool for further clinical investigation of BCG usage to control T1D.