Towards A Possible Therapy for Diabetes Complications.

摘要

C-peptide is the segment connecting insulin A and B chains. It is generated in pancreatic beta cells as the natural product of pro-insulin cleavage. For a long time, it was considered biologically important only for favoring proinsulin folding within the secretory granules of the beta cells. Consistently with this view, the standard of care for diabetic, and especially T1D patients is solely insulin-replacement therapy; C-peptide is not administrated. However, recent studies have challenged this view. It has been offered increasing evidence that human C-peptide exerts intracellular effects in a variety of cells and could be of real benefit for diabetic patients who suffer from micro-vascular complications. How exactly C-peptide achieves these intracellular effects, however, is still unknown. One major advance in this area would be the identification of the specific C-peptide receptor (CPR) at the level of the cellular membrane and characterization of C-peptide/CPR signaling to effectors upon internalization.