Insulin Production by Using Molecular Biotechnology Techniques, Sugar Metabolism, Genetic Engineering

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	Insulin Production by Using Molecular Biotechnology Techniques - The first licensed drug produced through genetic engineering was human insulin an important hormone that regulates sugar metabolism. Insulin is produced by a small number of cells in the pancreas and secreted into the bloodstream. The inability to produce insulin results in diabetes, but daily injections of insulin are sufficient to reverse or at least avoid the effects. In mammals, insulin is expressed as a single chain prepro hormone, which is secreted through the plasma membrane. A prepro- hormone contains extra amino acids not present in the mature hormone.
Amino terminal amino acids are present before the pre-sequence and target the expressed protein for secretion. The pro-sequence is a stretch of amino acids present before the pre-sequence and targets the expressed protein for secretion. The presequence present in the middle of the chain is important for the current structure and function. During secretion, these extra amino acids are cleaved from the prehormone by cellular proteases to release the mature insulin molecule consisting of two short polypeptide chains, A and B, linked by two disulphide bonds. The primary problem in the production was getting insulin assembled into this mature form. This problem was solved by creating single- glycosidase-insulin fusion protein, which could be cleaved in a single step to release mature insulin.