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Identification of Insulin Domains Important for Binding to and Degradation by Endosomal Acidic Insulinase*

Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale U510 (F.A.), Faculté de Pharmacie Paris XI, 92296 Châtenay-Malabry, France; Health Care Discovery (G.M.D.), Novo Nordisk A/S, Novo Alle, DK-2880 Bagsvaerd, Denmark; Laboratoire de Spectrométrie de masse (M.K., G.B.), Faculté de Médecine, 59000 Lille, France; Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale U30 (G.C.), Hôpital Necker Enfants-Malades, 75015 Paris, France

Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: François Authier, INSERM U510, Faculté de Pharmacie Paris XI, 5 rue Jean-Baptiste Clément, 92296 Châtenay-Malabry, France. E-mail: francois.authier{at}cep.u-psud.fr

The endosomal compartment of hepatic parenchymal cells contains an acidic endopeptidase, endosomal acidic insulinase (EAI), which hydrolyzes internalized insulin at a limited number of sites. Although the positions of these cleavages are partially known, the residues of insulin important in its binding to and proteolysis by EAI have not been defined. To this end, we have studied the degradation over time of native human insulin and three insulin-analog peptides using a soluble endosomal extract from rat liver parenchyma followed by purification of the products by HPLC and determination of their structure by mass spectrometry. We found variable rates of ligand processing, i.e. high ([Asp^B10]- and [Glu^A13,Glu^B10]-insulin), moderate (insulin) and low (the H2-analog). On the basis of IC₅₀ values, competition studies revealed that human and mutant insulins display nearly equivalent affinity for the EAI. Proteolysis of human and mutant insulins by EAI resulted in eight cleavages in the B-chain which occurred in the central region (Glu^B13-Leu^B17) and at the C-terminus (Arg^B22-Thr^B27), the latter region comprising the initial cleavages at Phe^B24-Phe^B25 (major pathway) and Phe^B25-Tyr^B26 (minor pathway) bonds. Except for the [Glu^A13,Glu^B10]-insulin mutant, only one cleavage on the A-chain was observed at residues Gln^A15-Leu^A16. Analysis of the nine cleavage sites showed a preference for hydrophobic and aromatic amino acid residues on both the carboxyl and amino sides of a cleaved peptide bond. Using the B-chain alone as a substrate resulted in a 30-fold increase in affinity for EAI and a 6-fold increase in the rate of hydrolysis compared with native insulin. A similar role for the C-terminal region of the B-chain of insulin in the high-affinity recognition of EAI was supported by the use of the corresponding B²²-B³⁰ peptide, which displayed an increase in EAI affinity similar to the entire B-chain vs. wild-type insulin. Thus, we have identified a highly specific molecular interaction of insulin with EAI at the aromatic locus Phe^B24-Phe^B25-Tyr^B26. Analytical subfractionation of a postmitochondrial supernatant fraction showed that a pulse of internalized [¹²⁵I]Tyr^A14-H2-analog, a protease-resistant insulin analog, undergoes a greater lysosomal transfer and lesser degradation than [¹²⁵I]Tyr^A14-insulin, confirming that endosomal sorting is regulated directly or indirectly by endosomal proteolysis.

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