Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) or insulin-dependent diabetes is an autoimmune disease that may pose life-threatening situations to individuals. In most cases, cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) promotes killing of islets of Langerhans in the pancreas, which harbour insulin-producing beta cells. The trigger for autoimmune attack is still unclear; therefore, identifying and targeting candidate genes are imperative to hinder its deleterious effects. In the present study, we focused on identification of new candidate genes for T1DM. For our study, we exclusively selected immune-related genes as they play a crucial role in T1DM. We constructed and analysed a human immunome signalling network (directed network) to identify the new candidate genes through various graph centrality measures combining with Gene Ontology (GO). As a result, we identified 4 new candidate genes which may act as potential drug targets for T1DM. We further validated for their disease relevance through literature survey and pathway analysis and found that 3 out of 4 predicted genes mirrored their well-established roles as potential targets for T1DM.

1 型糖尿病 (T1DM) 或胰岛素依赖型糖尿病是一种自身免疫性疾病，可能对个体造成威胁生命的情况。在大多数情况下，细胞毒性 T 淋巴细胞 (CTL) 会促进胰腺中朗格汉斯胰岛的杀伤，这些胰岛含有产生胰岛素的 β 细胞。自身免疫攻击的触发因素仍不清楚；因此，识别和靶向候选基因对于阻止其有害影响势在必行。在本研究中，我们专注于鉴定 T1DM 的新候选基因。对于我们的研究，我们专门选择了免疫相关基因，因为它们在 T1DM 中起着至关重要的作用。我们构建并分析了人类免疫组信号网络（有向网络），通过各种图形中心性测量结合基因本体（GO）来识别新的候选基因。因此，我们确定了 4 个新的候选基因，它们可能作为 T1DM 的潜在药物靶点。我们通过文献调查和通路分析进一步验证了它们的疾病相关性，发现 4 个预测基因中有 3 个反映了它们作为 T1DM 潜在靶标的公认作用。