Diabetes and drug targets Flashcards
Hypoglycemia
prolonged low blood sugar levels can result in coma and death
Hyperglycemia
recurrent infections, cardiac arrhythmia, stupor, coma, seizures, ketoacidosis, death
How are blood glucose levels controlled
a and beta cells in pancrease
High glucose leve;s, B-cells stimulated to release insulin
Low glucose levels, a-cells stimulated to release glucagon
Insulin causes cells and liver to uptake more glucose, sores as glycogen
Glucagon causes liver to break down glycogen and release glucose into blood
How is the pancreas an exocrine and endocrine organ
Exocrine: pancreatic duct secretes digestive enzymes and alkaline fluid into small intestine
Endocrine: Hormones from islets of langerhans secreted into blood
Major Cells of the Islets of Langerhans
Pancreatic Beta-cells comprise the majority of pancreatic islet cell population; secrete insulin.
Pancreatic Alpha-cells cells in the islet of Langerhans which secrete glucagon.
Pancreatic PP-cells PP cells secrete pancreatic polypeptide.
Pancreatic Delta-cells cells in the islet of Langerhans; known to secrete somatostatin, and vasoactive intestinal peptide
Two types of diabetes
Diabetes mellitus (of or pertaining to honey – sweet tasting). The European honey bee is called Apis Mellifera which literally means bee honey-bearing.
Diabetes insipidus (lacking flavour) – a disease in which the pituitary gland does not secrete sufficient vasopressin.
Three main classifications of diabetes mellitus
Type 1 – “absolute insulin deficiency” - body is attackingpamcreatic beta cells that make insulin
Type 2 – “insulin resistance”
Gestational - is a condition in which women without previously diagnosed diabetes exhibit high blood glucose levels during pregnancy (esp. during the third trimester due to changes in renal absorption of glucose)
Cellular role of insulin
Insulin binds to receptor monomerically
Insulin receptor is a tyrosine kinase
Insulin activates own insulin receptor, undergoes conformational change leading to:
increase in receptor number
What happens to glucose when insulin is secreted
Put into glycogen
Or broken to pyruvates
Converted to fatty acids - then triglycerides and adipose tissue
Explain how insulin is exported into secretory vesicles
Needs signal sequence, once in ER lumen the signal sequence is cleaved off and insulin is now a soluble protein, now goes into Golgi and into secretory vesicles
Explain the different pHs involved in insulin getting packaged into secretory vesicles
ER lumen is 7.2
Golgi 6.7->6.0
Vesicles 5.7
pl of insulin is 5.4, close to buffer of vesicle so protein precipitates, happens in a conterolled way so that insulin is in its stored form in vesicles
What structure does insulin form in the Secretoy vesicles and what is needed for this to occur
forms a hexameric structure, zn2+ ions necessary
Explain how insulin develops into a hexameric structure in the secretory vesicle
Protease cleavage releases C peptide
Carboxypeptidase produces mature insulin
Packaged with Zn2+ ion that is transported through the Znt8 transporter
What tranporter needed for hexameric stored insulin is a genetic risk for development of both type1/2 diabetes
ZnT8
Explain the quaternary structure of insulin
at an equlilibrium
Monomers (active form) - Dimers - Hexamers (stored form)
Describe the basic primary structure of insulin
See photo
A chain and B chain connected by disulphide bonds
Explain the monomeric structure of insulin
A chain - 2 alpha helices
B chain - alpha helix and beta sheet
Contains 3 disulphide bridges (2 inter S-S and 1 intra S-S)
Explain the two different states on monomeric insulin
T state - conserved glycine on the B-chain acts as a helix breaker - rest of AAs are just a chain not a helix - elongated structure
R state - point after glycine still an a-helix
Explain the dimeric structure of insulin
Dimerisation occurs between the beta sheets
Normally 1 T state and 1 R state, but can be TT or RR
Explain the hexameric structre of insulin
Can be T and R states mixed (T3R3) (alternating), All Rs (R6), or all Ts (T6) - these differ in the first N-terminal 8 residues of the B chain, can undergo ligand-mediated interconversion between the states
Central zinc ion
Explain what the molecular size of insulin determines
Rate of subcutaneous absorption
e.g. monomeric insulin faster absorption into the capillary membrane than hexameric insulin
what are R6 crystals formed in the presence of?
in the presence of phenol (used in the insulin preparation as an antibacterial agent)
Prolonged acting insulin…
Consists of an amorphous or crystalline prep that dissolves slowly
Rapid acting preps can be achieved by…
introducing mutations at the dimer interface such as B28