Insulin detemir, sold under the brand name Levemir among others, is a long-acting modified form of medical insulin used to treat both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. It is used by injection under the skin. It is effective for up to 24 hours. Insulin detemir was approved for medical use in the European Union in June 2004, and in the United States in June 2005. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. In 2020, it was the 124th most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 5 million prescriptions. It is an insulin analogue in which a fatty acid (myristic acid) is bound to the lysine amino acid at position B29. It is quickly absorbed after which it binds to albumin in the blood through its fatty acid at position B29. It then slowly dissociates from this complex. Here you can see a recent crystal structure of insulin detemir, showing the binding of myristic acid to the complex (PDB code: 8IPZ)

#molecularart ...#insulin ...#detemir ... #myristic ... #diabetes ... #xray

Structure rendered with @proteinimaging and depicted with @corelphotopaint