Oligomerization of Pharmaceutically Relevant Insulin Analogues for Varying Concentration and Salinity Revealed by Small-Angle X-ray Scattering

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Two different insulin analogues, insulin degludec and lithocholyl insulin, were studied by small-angle X-ray scattering with respect to their self-assembly and interactions in solution at different concentrations of insulin and salt, NaCl. Very different behavior was observed for the two. Insulin degludec, linked to a hexadecanedioic acid, consistently formed di-hexamers, without any further oligomeric growth upon screening of electrostatic repulsions, indicating a stable di-hexamer unit without further oligomerization, as expected in the presence of phenol. The other insulin analogue, linked to the sterol lithocholic acid, formed n-hexamers with n ranging from 1 to 15, increasing with NaCl concentration and insulin concentration, indicating attractive forces in competition with the electrostatic repulsion and solution entropy. At the highest concentration of insulin and NaCl, a liquid crystal phase was observed, which has not previously been identified, featuring a quadratic structure organized into layers, which might hold interesting properties for pharmaceutical applications.

Original languageEnglish
JournalMolecular Pharmaceutics
Volume18
Issue number9
Pages (from-to)3272-3280
Number of pages9
ISSN1543-8384
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 6 Sep 2021

    Research areas

  • insulin degludec, lithocholyl insulin, SAXS, self-assembly, oligomerization, NEUTRON-SCATTERING, MECHANISM, STABILIZATION, PROTRACTION, DEGLUDEC

ID: 280664929