Many peptide hormones implicated in the regulation of intermediary metabolism arise from larger precursors called prohormones.
These precursors are cut into pieces by proprotein convertases, more precisely those called prohormone convertases (PCs) that
cleave at the C terminus of basic doublets. The remaining basic amino acids are eliminated by a specialized carboxypeptidase,
leading to the active hormone. This processing may provide, from a single precursor, several peptides with different biological
activities depending on the site(s) of cleavage on the precursor. When the processing is tissue-specific, this mechanism allows
to produce, from a single protein, different sets of hormones depending on the tissue considered, leading to novel regulatory
processes. The archetype of such a pluripotent prohormone in the field of intermediary metabolism is pro-glucagon that, when
cut by PC1 in intestinal L cells, produces four different peptides with different specificities [glicentin, oxyntomodulin
(OXM), glucagon-like peptide-1, and glucagon-like peptide-2], whereas, when cut by PC2 in the α cells of the endocrine pancreas,
glucagon is produced and, through the supplementary action of NRD convertase, a fragment of glucagon (miniglucagon) with original
properties.
Keywords Pro-protein convertase - Prohormones - Prohormone convertase