Insulin, amino acid sequence

Biosynthetic Human Insulin from E. coli. Insulin [9004-10-8] a polypeptide hormone, stimulates anaboHc reactions for carbohydrates, proteins, and fats thereby producing a lowered blood glucose level. Porcine insulin [12584-58-6] and bovine insulin [11070-73-8] were used to treat diabetes prior to the availabiHty of human insulin [11061 -68-0]. AH three insulins are similar in amino acid sequence. EH LiHy s human insulin was approved for testing in humans in 1980 by the U.S. EDA and was placed on the market by 1982 (11,12). 

Insulin has 51 anino acids, divided between two chains. One of these, the A chain, has 21 amino acids the other, the B chain, has 30. The A and B chains are joined by disulfide bonds between cysteine residues (Cys-Cys). Figure 27.10 shows some of the information that defines the amino acid sequence of the B chain. 

A small number of proteins, and again insulin is an example, are synthesized as pro-proteins with an additional amino acid sequence which dictates the final three-dimensional structure. In the case of proinsulin, proteolytic attack cleaves out a stretch of 35 amino acids in the middle of the molecule to generate insulin. The peptide that is removed is known as the C chain. The other chains, A and B, remain crosslinked and thus locked in a stable tertiary stiucture by the disulphide bridges formed when the molecule originally folded as proinsulin. Bacteria have no mechanism for specifically cutting out the folding sequences from pro-hormones and the way of solving this problem is described in a later section. 

Many of the initial biopharmaceuticals approved were simple replacement proteins (e.g. blood factors and human insulin). The ability to alter the amino acid sequence of a protein logically coupled to an increased understanding of the relationship between protein structure and function (Chapters 2 and 3) has facilitated the more recent introduction of several engineered therapeutic proteins (Table 1.3). Thus far, the vast majority of approved recombinant proteins have been produced in the bacterium E. coli, the yeast S. cerevisiae or in animal cell lines (most notably Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells or baby hamster kidney (BHK) cells. These production systems are discussed in Chapter 5. 

Insulin was first identified as an anti-diabetic factor in 1921, and was introduced clinically the following year. Its complete amino acid sequence was determined in 1951. Although mature insulin is a dimeric structure, it is synthesized as a single polypeptide precursor, i.e. preproinsulin. This 108 amino acid polypeptide contains a 23 amino acid signal sequence at its amino terminal end. This guides it through the endoplasmic reticulum membrane, where the signal sequence is removed by a specific peptidase. 

Mature insulin consists of two polypeptide chains connected by two interchain disulfide linkages. The A-chain contains 21 amino acids, whereas the larger B-chain is composed of 30 residues. Insulins from various species conform to this basic structure, while varying slightly in their amino acid sequence. Porcine insulin (5777 Da) varies from the human form (5807 Da) by a single amino acid, whereas bovine insulin (5733 Da) differs by three residues. 

Recombinant DNA technology facilitates not only production of human insulin in microbial systems, but also facilitates generation of insulins of modified amino acid sequences. The major aims of generating such engineered insulin analogues include ... 

Globular proteins were much more difficult to prepare in an ordered form. In 1934, Bernal and Crowfoot (Hodgkin) found, that crystals were better preserved if they were kept in contact with their mother liquor sealed in thin-walled glass capillaries. By the early 1940s crystal classes and unit cell dimensions had been determined for insulin, horse haemoglobin, RNAase, pepsin, and chymotrypsin. Complete resolution of the structures required identification of the crystal axes and some knowledge of the amino acid sequence of the protein—requirements which could not be met until the 1950s. 

With methods for the quantitative analysis of amino acids to hand, the way was now open for the determination of amino acid sequences. Purified bovine insulin was relatively freely available. On the basis of ultracentrifugal analysis (Gutfreund and Ogston), a molecular weight of 12,000 was assumed—as it later emerged, a factor of 2 too high. One of the advantages from the choice of insulin as the protein to sequence was that tryptophan is absent. A 100% recovery of the amino acids could therefore be obtained easily by simple hydrolysis with HC1. In 1948 Tristram reported the complete amino acid composition of the protein. 

The formation of three disulfide bonds in bovine insulin brings parts of the chain that are distant in terms of amino acid sequence into close proximity in the three-dimensional structure of the protein. 

The primary structure of a protein is its amino acid sequence. During the biosynthesis of insulin in the pancreas, a continuous peptide chain with 84 residues is first synthesized—proinsu/in (see p.160). After folding of the molecule, the three disulfide bonds are first formed, and residues 31 to 63 are then proteolytically cleaved releasing the so-called C peptide. The molecule that is left over (1) now consists of two peptide chains, the A chain (21 residues, shown in yellow) and the B chain (30 residues, orange). One of the disulfide bonds is located inside the A chain, and the two others link the two chains together. 

Many of the initial biopharmaceuticals approved were simple replacement proteins (e.g. blood factors and human insulin). The ability to logically alter the amino acid sequence of a protein, coupled to an increased understanding of the relationship between protein structure and function has facilitated the more recent introduction of several engineered therapeutic... 

As previously described, porcine insulin differs from human insulin by only one amino acid (the B30 residue). In the early 1970s, a method was developed by which porcine insulin could be converted into a preparation of identical amino acid sequence to that of human insulin (Figure 8.4). This method utilizes a combination of enzymatic and chemical treatment of the porcine product. 

Figure 8.4. Amino acid sequence of porcine insulin is depicted in (a). Trypsin cleavage sites are also indicated. Trypsin therefore effectively removes the insulin carboxy-terminus B chain octapeptide. The amino acid sequence of human insulin differs from that of porcine insulin by only one amino acid residue. Porcine insulin contains an alanine residue at position 30 of the B-chain, whereas human insulin contains a threonine residue at that position. Insulin exhibiting a human amino acid sequence may thus be synthesized from porcine insulin by treating the latter with tr5q)sin, removal of the C terminus fragments, generated and replacement of this with the synthetic octapeptide shown in (b). Reproduced by permission of John Wiley Sons Ltd from Walsh Headon (1994)...

Insulin Lispro was the first recombinant fast-acting insulin analogue to gain marketing approval (Table 8.3). It displays an amino acid sequence identical to native human insulin, with one alteration — an inversion of the natural proline lysine sequence found at positions 28 and 29 of the insulin jS-chain. This simple alteration significantly decreased the propensity of individual insulin molecules to self-associate when stored at therapeutic dose concentrations. The dimerization constant for Insulin Lispro is 300 times lower than that exhibited by unmodified human insulin. Structurally, this appears to occur as the change in sequence disrupts the formation of inter-chain hydrophobic interactions critical to self-association. 

Insulin therefore consists of two peptide chains that are connected by two disulfide bonds, since the C-peptide is cleaved off. There are some species-specific differences in the amino acid sequence of the hormone. X-ray diffraction studies have shown that insulin occurs as a hexameric protein containing two Zn atoms. The dimers are first held by four hydrogen bonds and a hydrophobic bond along the sequence in the form of an antiparallel P sheet. The dimers then bind by interaction of the B -Ala, B -Leu, and B -Val residues. The core of the hexamer contains water. 

Figure 1.2. Schematic presentation of insulin A and B chains and their amino-acid sequences based on insulin extracted from pork.

Protein fragmentation, on the other hand, may be needed for functional activity of some proteins, such as chymotrypsin and insulin, which assume active forms after removal of amino-acid sequences in chy-motrypsinogen and proinsuhn. Additional complexity in analytical methodologies to deduce protein function in situ could also arise from a single protein exhibiting more than one function. Conversely, a given function may require integration of multiple proteins, or that many other proteins can perform the same function. 

Commercial insulin preparations differ in a number of ways, such as differences in the recombinant DNA production techniques, amino acid sequence, concentration, solubility, and the time of onset and duration of their biologic action. 

Two major discoveries in 1953 were of crucial importance in the history of biochemistry. In that year James D. Watson and Francis Crick deduced the double-helical structure of DNA and proposed a structural basis for its precise replication (Chapter 8). Their proposal illuminated the molecular reality behind the idea of a gene. In that same year, Frederick Sanger worked out the sequence of amino acid residues in the polypeptide chains of the hormone insulin (Fig. 3-24), surprising many researchers who had long thought that elucidation of the amino acid sequence of a polypeptide would be a hopelessly difficult task. It quickly became evident that the nucleotide sequence in DNA and the amino acid sequence in proteins were somehow related. Barely a decade after these discoveries, the role of the nucleotide... 

FIGURE 23-5 Insulin. Mature insulin is formed from its larger precursor preproinsulin by proteolytic processing. Removal of a 23 amino acid segment (the signal sequence) at the amino terminus of preproinsulin and formation of three disulfide bonds produces proinsulin. Further proteolytic cuts remove the C peptide from proinsulin to produce mature insulin, composed of A and B chains. The amino acid sequence of bovine insulin is shown in Figure 3-24. 

C. Synthesis of an insulin with an abnormal amino acid sequence... 

Figure 7-17 The structure of insulin. (A) The amino acid sequence of the A and B chains linked by disulfide bridges. (B) Sketch showing the backbone structure of the insulin molecule as revealed by X-ray analysis. The A and B chains have been labeled. Positions and orientations of aromatic side chains are also shown. (C) View of the paired N-terminal ends of the B chains in the insulin dimer. View is approximately down the pseudo-twofold axis toward the center of the hexamer. (D) Schematic drawing showing packing of six insulin molecules in the zinc-stabilized hexamer.

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