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Adaptation to efficient heterologous expression is a prerequisite for recombinant proteins to fulfill their clinical and biotechnological potential. We describe a rational strategy to optimize the secretion efficiency in yeast of an insulin precursor by structure-based engineering of the folding stability. The yield of a fast-acting insulin analogue (Asp(B28)) expressed in yeast was enhanced 5-fold by engineering a specific interaction between an aromatic amino acid in the connecting peptide and a phenol binding site in the hydrophobic core of the molecule. This insulin precursor is characterized by significantly enhanced folding stability. The improved folding properties enhanced the secretion efficiency of the insulin precursor from 10 to 50%. The precursor remains fully in vitro convertible to mature fast-acting insulin.

Alanine scanning mutagenesis has been used to identify specific side chains of insulin which strongly influence binding to the insulin receptor. A total of 21 new insulin analog constructs were made, and in addition 7 high pressure liquid chromatography-purified analogs were tested, covering alanine substitutions in positions B1, B2, B3, B4, B8, B9, B10, B11, B12, B13, B16, B17, B18, B20, B21, B22, B26, A4, A8, A9, A12, A13, A14, A15, A16, A17, A19, and A21. Binding data on the analogs revealed that the alanine mutations that were most disruptive for binding were at positions TyrA19, GlyB8, LeuB11, and GluB13, resulting in decreases in affinity of 1,000-, 33-, 14-, and 8-fold, respectively, relative to wild-type insulin. In contrast, alanine substitutions at positions GlyB20, ArgB22, and SerA9 resulted in an increase in affinity for the insulin receptor. The most striking finding is that B20Ala insulin retains high affinity binding to the receptor. GlyB20 is conserved in insulins from different species, and in the structure of the B-chain it appears to be essential for the shift from the alpha-helix B8-B19 to the beta-turn B20-B22. Thus, replacing GlyB20 with alanine most likely modifies the structure of the B-chain in this region, but this structural change appears to enhance binding to the insulin receptor.

The exact nature of how the insulin molecule interacts with the insulin receptor is obscure although chimeric receptors have shown that the ligand specificity of the insulin receptor and the IGF-I receptor (i.e. the sequences that discriminate between insulin and insulin-like growth factor I) reside in different regions of a common binding site and that the N-terminal 68 amino acids of the insulin receptor are involved in conferring specificity for insulin on this receptor (Kjeldsen, T., Andersen, A. S., Wiberg, F. C., Rasmussen, J. S., Schäffer, L., Balschmidt, P., Møller, K. B., and Møller, N. P. H. (1991) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 88, 4404-4408). Using chimeric insulin/IGF-I receptors to elucidate how the insulin receptor interacts with the insulin molecule we identified phenylalanine 39 of the insulin receptor as a major contributor in determining the receptor specificity for insulin, increasing insulin affinity 15-fold when replacing the corresponding amino acid in the insulin-like growth factor I receptor. Furthermore, replacement of the insulin receptor amino acid phenylalanine 39 with the corresponding IGF-I receptor amino acid, serine 35, decreased insulin affinity 8-fold.

Insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) and insulin receptors are structurally similar with ligand-stimulated tyrosine kinase activity in their cytoplasmic domains. The function of the insulin receptor tyrosine kinase in signal transduction has been studied extensively in contrast to the IGF-I receptor tyrosine kinase. In the present study we have analyzed the regulatory function of the IGF-I receptor tyrosine kinase and carboxyl-terminal domains in mitogenic signaling by overexpression of mutant IGF-I receptors in mouse NIH-3T3 fibroblasts. A mutant IGF-I receptor, in which 3 tyrosines (Tyr1131, Tyr1135, and Tyr1136) analogous to the three major autophosphorylation sites in the insulin receptor kinase were replaced by phenylalanines, was devoid of kinase activity in vivo and in vitro and inactive with respect to IGF-I internalization and stimulation of thymidine incorporation. Another mutant IGF-I receptor, which lacks the 49 carboxyl-terminal amino acids (residues 1289-1337) of the beta-subunit, was fully active. Our data suggest that the structure-function relationship of the IGF-I receptor tyrosine kinase activation and signal transduction is similar to that of the insulin receptor.

We have examined, by use of a hybrid insulin/insulin-like growth factor-I analog and chimeric insulin/type I insulin-like growth factor receptors, the interplay between ligand and receptor structure in determining the affinity and specificity of hormone-receptor interactions in the insulin and insulin-like growth factor-I systems. Our findings, obtained through the study of radiolabeled peptide binding to detergent-solubilized full-length receptors and to soluble truncated receptors, show that (a) the two-chain hybrid analog exhibits significant cross-reactivity with both receptor systems, (b) the exchange of appropriate domains in chimeric receptors enhances the receptor binding affinity of the analog by 3.5-21-fold, and (c) the affinity of the hybrid analog for the chimeric receptors actually exceeds that of either natural insulin or natural insulin-like growth factor-I. We conclude that the specificity-conferring domains of the insulin and type I insulin-like growth factor receptors reside in different regions of a common binding site, and that the exchange of domains between pairs of related hormones and between pairs of related receptors can yield new ligand-receptor systems with significantly altered affinities and selectivities.

We have previously shown, using truncated soluble recombinant receptors, that substituting the 62 N-terminal amino acids of the alpha subunit from the insulin-like growth factor I receptor (IGFIR) with the corresponding 68 amino acids from the insulin receptor (IR) results in a chimeric receptor with an approximately 200-fold increase in affinity for insulin and only a 5-fold decrease in insulin-like growth factor I (IGFI) affinity (Kjeldsen, T., Andersen, A. S., Wiberg, F. C., Rasmussen, J. S., Schäffer, L., Balschmidt, P., Møller, K. B., and Møller, N. P. H. (1991) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 88, 4404-4408). We demonstrate that these 68 N-terminal amino acids of the IR also confer insulin affinity on the intact IGFI holoreceptor both in the membrane-bound state and when solubilized by Triton X-100. Furthermore, this domain can be subdivided into two regions (amino acids 1-27 and 28-68 of the IR alpha subunit) that, when replacing the corresponding IGFIR sequences, increases the insulin affinity of truncated soluble receptor chimeras 8- and 20-fold, respectively, with only minor effects on the IGFI affinity. Within the latter of these two regions, we found that amino acids 38-68 of the IR, representing 13 amino acid differences from IGFIR, confer the same 20-fold increase in insulin affinity on the IGFIR. Finally, the amino acids from position 42 to 50 are not responsible for this increase in insulin affinity. We thus propose that at least two determinants within the 68 N-terminal amino acids of the insulin receptor are involved in defining the ligand specificity of the insulin receptor, and that one or a combination of the remaining seven amino acid differences between position 38 and 68 are involved in conferring insulin affinity on the insulin receptor.

We obtained 20 mouse monoclonal antibodies specific for human type I insulin-like growth factor (IGF) receptors, using transfected cells expressing high levels of receptors (IGF-1R/3T3 cells) as immunogen. The antibodies immunoprecipitated receptor.125I-IGF-I complexes and biosynthetically labeled receptors from IGF-1R/3T3 cells but did not react with human insulin receptors or rat type I IGF receptors. Several antibodies stimulated DNA synthesis in IGF-1R/3T3 cells, but the maximum stimulation was only 25% of that produced by IGF-I. The antibodies fell into seven groups recognizing distinct epitopes and with different effects on receptor function. All the antibodies reacted with the extracellular portion of the receptor, and epitopes were localized to specific domains by investigating their reaction with a series of chimeric IGF/insulin receptor constructs. Binding of IGF-I was inhibited up to 90% by antibody 24-60 reacting in the region 184-283, and by antibody 24-57 reacting in the region 440-586. IGF-I binding was stimulated up to 2.5-fold by antibodies 4-52 and 16-13 reacting in the region 62-184, and by antibody 26-3 reacting downstream of 283. The latter two groups of antibodies also dramatically stimulated insulin binding to intact IGF-1R/3T3 cells (by up to 50-fold), and potentiated insulin stimulation of DNA synthesis. Scatchard analysis indicated that in the presence of these antibodies, the affinity of the type I IGF receptor for insulin was comparable with that of the insulin receptor. These data indicate that regions both within and outside the cysteine-rich domain of the receptor alpha-subunit are important in determining the affinity and specificity of ligand binding. These antibodies promise to be valuable tools in resolving issues of IGF-I receptor heterogeneity and in studying the structure and function of classical type I receptors and insulin/IGF receptor hybrids.