Name: Biotechnology and Ethical Issues
Uploaded: 2019-07-19
Duration: 7 min 22 s
Description: Genetic engineering aids in modification of living organisms. But is it wise to exploit nature’s resources for the benefit of humankind? Learn more in this v...

Question

List the advantages of recombinant insulin.

Accepted Answer

Human insulin is produced by the beta cells of the islets of Langerhans of the pancreas and is made up of 51 amino acid arranged in two polypeptide chains. It is composed of two peptide chains A and B that are linked together by two disulfide bonds. The chain A consists of 21 amino acids and the B chain of 30 amino acids. In mammals, the insulin is synthesised as a pro-hormone in an inactive form which needs to be activated. The proinsulin is made of three polypeptide chains with an extra C peptide which is removed before maturation.

The main challenge for rDNA technology was to produce mature insulin. For the first time, the mature insulin was prepared by the American Ely Lilly company as separated polypeptide strands in the plasmid of bacteria, E.coli which were later made to join together by the disulphide bonds.

The main advantages of this artificially synthesised insulin are as follows:

1. Since it is a hormone and is produced in a very small quantity in living organisms, thus, it demanded the sacrifice of a large number of animals and also the cost of treatment was very high. By using various techniques of genetic engineering, it has become easy to obtain a large amount of insulin without sacrificing the animal life and the treatment is also not very costly.

2. Since it was obtained from the slaughtered animals earlier which is unethical and there are chances that the animals that are being used might have some diseases that might be transmitted to the consumer. Thus, the insulin obtained from rDNA technology has reduced the unnecessary exposure to diseases.

3. It was observed that some patients who were on the insulin treatment began to develop the symptoms of allergy due to the stimulation of their immune system as the insulin has been obtained from the foreign source. The insulin obtained by rDNA technology has no such side effects.

List the advantages of recombinant insulin.

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