Nai-Pin Lin
Postdoctoral Scholar, Endocrinology and Metabolism
All Publications
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Modifying insulin to improve performance.
Science (New York, N.Y.)
2022; 376 (6599): 1270-1271
Abstract
A platform to enable precise modifications of insulin could improve drug functionality.
View details for DOI 10.1126/science.abq7217
View details for PubMedID 35709283
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Synthesis and Characterization of Phenylboronic Acid-Modified Insulin With Glucose-Dependent Solubility.
Frontiers in chemistry
2022; 10: 859133
Abstract
Glucose-responsive insulin represents a promising approach to regulate blood glucose levels. We previously showed that attaching two fluorophenylboronic acid (FPBA) residues to the C-terminal B chain of insulin glargine led to glucose-dependent solubility. Herein, we demonstrated that relocating FPBA from B chain to A chain increased the baseline solubility without affecting its potency. Furthermore, increasing the number of FPBA groups led to increased glucose-dependent solubility.
View details for DOI 10.3389/fchem.2022.859133
View details for PubMedID 35372263
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Facile synthesis of insulin fusion derivatives through sortase A ligation.
Acta pharmaceutica Sinica. B
2021; 11 (9): 2719-2725
Abstract
Insulin derivatives such as insulin detemir and insulin degludec are U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved long-acting insulin currently used by millions of people with diabetes. These derivatives are modified in C-terminal B29 lysine to retain insulin bioactivity. New and efficient methods for facile synthesis of insulin derivatives may lead to new discovery of therapeutic insulin. Herein, we report a new method using sortase A (SrtA)-mediated ligation for the synthesis of insulin derivatives with high efficiency and functional group tolerance in the C-terminal B chain. This new insulin molecule (Ins-SA) with an SrtA-recognizing motif can be conjugated to diverse groups with N-terminal oligoglycines to generate new insulin derivatives. We further demonstrated that a new insulin derivative synthesized by this SrtA-mediated ligation shows strong cellular and invivo bioactivity. This enzymatic method can therefore be used for future insulin design and development.
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.apsb.2020.11.011
View details for PubMedID 34589392
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Targeting transcriptional coregulator OCA-B/Pou2af1 blocks activated autoreactive T cells in the pancreas and type 1 diabetes.
The Journal of experimental medicine
2021; 218 (3)
Abstract
The transcriptional coregulator OCA-B promotes expression of T cell target genes in cases of repeated antigen exposure, a necessary feature of autoimmunity. We hypothesized that T cell-specific OCA-B deletion and pharmacologic OCA-B inhibition would protect mice from autoimmune diabetes. We developed an Ocab conditional allele and backcrossed it onto a diabetes-prone NOD/ShiLtJ strain background. T cell-specific OCA-B loss protected mice from spontaneous disease. Protection was associated with large reductions in islet CD8+ T cell receptor specificities associated with diabetes pathogenesis. CD4+ clones associated with diabetes were present but associated with anergic phenotypes. The protective effect of OCA-B loss was recapitulated using autoantigen-specific NY8.3 mice but diminished in monoclonal models specific to artificial or neoantigens. Rationally designed membrane-penetrating OCA-B peptide inhibitors normalized glucose levels and reduced T cell infiltration and proinflammatory cytokine expression in newly diabetic NOD mice. Together, the results indicate that OCA-B is a potent autoimmune regulator and a promising target for pharmacologic inhibition.
View details for DOI 10.1084/jem.20200533
View details for PubMedID 33295943