Insulin mimetic amino acid sequences

Exsulins or insulin-mimetic amino acid sequences with a molecular weight of up to 55,000 Daltons and with 1 to 50 basic units of the following general formula I

• [−] [L,V,I,A]-X1—X2-[L,V,I,A]-[D,E]-[N,Q,M]-X3—[C,H]—X4 [−] (I)
• wherein
• [L,V,I,A], [D,E], [N,Q,M], [C,H] and X1 to 4 mean peptide-linked amino acids,
• [L,V,I,A] stands for leucine (L), valine (V), isoleucine (I) or alanine (A)
• [D,E] stands for aspartic acid (D) or glutamic acid (E),
• [N,Q,M] stands for asparagine (N), glutamine (Q) or methionine (M),
• [C,H] stands for cysteine (C) or histidine (H),
• the two groups [L,V,I,A] in one basic unit can be the same or different,
• X1, X2, X3 and X4 mean any amino acid and the four amino acids
• X1 to 4 in one basic unit can be the same or different,
• the basic unit of the general formula (I) can be centrally located or terminally located, in a terminally located basic unit only one of the residues [−] is present, if several basic units of the general formula (I) are present in one molecule, these basic units can be the same or different, and
• the residues [−], if present, each stand for any amino acid peptide-linked with [L,V,I,A] or X4 or for an amino acid sequence built up of several of any amino acids, which is peptide-linked with [L,V,I,A] or X4, and
• [−], if several basic units of the general formula (I) are present, stands for an indirect linkage of any amino acid or of an amino acid sequence described above or for a direct linkage of two adjacent basic units, and the amino acid sequences obtained by insertions, deletions and conservative substitutions of amino acids and the phosphorylated, acetylated, farnesylated, oxidised, carbohydrate and/or lipid conjugated and/or solid or liquid carrier immobilised derivatives thereof.