Insulin, function properties

Many peroxovanadates have potent insulin-mimetic properties [1,2]. Apparently, this functionality derives from the ability of these compounds to rapidly oxidize the active site thiols found in the group of protein tyrosine phosphatases that are involved in regulating the insulin receptor function [3], The discovery of vanadium-dependent haloperoxidases in marine algae and terrestrial lichens provided an additional stimulus in research toward obtaining functional models of peroxidase activity, and there is great interest in duplicating the function of these enzymes (see Section 10.4.2). 

In addition to vanadium, other early transition metals have been shown to have antidiabetic properties, which is not surprising, as this class of compounds would be expected to share some chemical functionality. Chromium [110-112], tungsten [113,114], and molybdenum [115,116] all have demonstrated insulin-like properties. 

BENZENESULFONIC ACID DERIVATIVES As has been discussed previously, substituted -alkylbenzene-sulfonylureas often possess the property of releasing bound insulin, thus sparing the requirement for insulin injections in adult-onset diabetes. A pyrimidine moiety, interestingly, can serve as a surrogate for the urea function. 

The difficulty with HLB as an index of physicochemical properties is that it is not a unique value, as the data of Zaslavsky et al. (1) on the haemolytic activity of three alkyl mercaptan polyoxyethylene derivatives clearly show in Table 1. Nevertheless data on promotion of the absorption of drugs by series of nonionic surfactants, when plotted as a function of HLB do show patterns of behaviour which can assist in pin-pointing the necessary lipophilicity required for optimal biological activity. It is evident however, that structural specificity plays a part in interactions of nonionic surfactants with biomembranes as shown in Table 1. It is reasonable to assume that membranes with different lipophilicities will"require" surfactants of different HLB to achieve penetration and fluidization one of the difficulties in discerning this optimal value of HLB resides in the problems of analysis of data in the literature. For example, Hirai et al. (8 ) examined the effect of a large series of alkyl polyoxyethylene ethers (C4,C0, Cj2 and C 2 series) on the absorption of insulin through the nasal mucosa of rats. Some results are shown in Table II. 

The opposite page presents models of insulin, a small protein. The biosynthesis and function of this important hormone are discussed elsewhere in this book (pp.l60,388). Monomeric insulin consists of 51 amino acids, and with a molecular mass of 5.5 kDa it is only half the size of the smallest enzymes. Nevertheless, it has the typical properties of a globular protein. 

Much uncertainty reigned over the nature of proteins, the best known of which were hemoglobin, the digestive enzymes, and later, insulin. Properties of individual amino acids and the peptide bond were studied early in this century, but it was not until urease was crystallized by Sumner1 in 1926, followed by the isolation of other pure enzymes, that it was finally accepted in the 1930s that enzymes were proteins and that their catalytic properties were not the function of some adsorbed low molecular weight entity. Somewhat later, towards the end of the 1930s, coenzymes were isolated and their roles established. 

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