Question

Describe how the insulin analog drugs insulin aspart and insulin glargine have been structurally changed from a molecule of human insulin.

Answer 1

Alike human insulin, analogue insulin are developed in laboratory by growing insulin proteins within E-coli bacteria (Escherichia coli).

Furthermore it is achieved by changing the order of amino acids to allow the insulin to be used by the body in emphasis to more rapid and uniform way by the body in comparison to the regular human insulin generally with the help of ‘recombinant DNA’ technology.

Analogue insulin offer rapid acting and long acting property.

Benefits of analogue insulin

Main benefit of analogue insulin is the rapid acting property, as it works as soon as it is injected.

It is useful for people who are insulin dependent as it can help to minimise sharp rises in blood sugar very soon after eating.

Disadvantages of analogue insulin

As with human insulins, analogue insulins may lead to unwanted side effects as loss of hypo awareness, lethargy and weight gain.

Further disadvantage of analogue insulin is in its high price.

Structural difference between human insulin and insulin aspart:

Insulin aspart is rDNA origin injection and it is a human insulin analog that is a rapidacting,

parenteral blood glucose-lowering agent.

It is homologous with regular human insulin with the exception of a single substitution of the amino acid proline by aspartic acid in position B28.

It is produced by rDNA technology using Saccharomyces cerevisiae as the production organism.

Structural difference between human insulin and insulin glargine:

Insulin glargine is a basal insulin analog developed by the substitution of the glycine residue at position 21 of the A-chain of the regular insulin molecule for asparagine & at the same time the addition of two arginine residues to the B-chain at position.

These structural modifications results in a shifting of the isoelectric point of the molecule, rendering it soluble at pH 4 making a clear solution in the prescription vial.

Insulin glargine had consistently showed effective in maintaining glycemic control in type 1diabetes in a single bedtime dose.

Hence it is well proved that the stutural modification in human insuli, leading to generation of insulin analog have positive impact in insulin therapy for Type I diabetes worldwide.