insulin

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Ligands
insulin (Human)

GtoPdb Ligand ID: 5012

insulin is an approved drug (FDA (1982), EMA (1997))

Compound class: Endogenous peptide in human, mouse or rat

Comment: The biologically active peptide is a heterodimer of an A chain and a B chain linked by two disulphide bonds. The structure of approved drug insulin regular (which the link to DrugBank outlines) is identical to native human insulin.

While recombinant human insulin was approved by the FDA in 1982, insulin from pigs was used for several decades prior to this date.

Insulin drugs:
Many recombinant forms of human insulin have been approved for clinical use. They can be identical in sequence to human insulin or can be modified in ways which affect their speed of action. Insulin products can be categorised as rapid-, short-, intermediate- or long-acting. Long-acting insulin products, such as insulin glargine, insulin degludec and insulin detemir are primarily used to maintain a background level of insulin to control blood sugars between meals. These are administered once or twice a day. Short-acting products like insulin lispro are generally administered just before meals to help control blood sugar levels after eating.

Species: Human