**9. Medicaments as potential T1D inducers**

For many decades, it was believed that certain chemical substances including patented medicaments are harmful for the pancreas and provoke T1D. The mechanisms whereby chemical drugs exert their hazardous effects vary widely and are not clearly understood. Active drug components accumulated in body cells slow down the functional processes in different body tissues and organs and trigger pathological reactions, e.g., by providing tropism of certain pathogens or restructuring the systemic architectonics of body organs including the pancreas. The presence, in such active components, of sequestered or cryptic epitopes provokes negative phenomena, such as molecular mimicry. Not infrequently, medicinal drugs trigger a series of immunoregulatory and immunoeffector shifts, which culminate in immune disorders including autoimmune destruction of the pancreas.
