How Vitamin K Could be the Answer to Diabetes

Diabetes affects one in 11 people worldwide and is one of the biggest preventable causes of death worldwide. There is currently no cure for diabetes. It can only be controlled with diet, exercise, and medications. A recent study has discovered a new role for vitamin K and gamma-carboxylation in beta cells and their possible protective role in diabetes. This is the first in 15 years. The discovery was made by scientists at Université de Montréal and its affiliated Montreal Clinical Research Institute (IRCM) (1^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Vitamin K-dependent carboxylation regulates Ca²⁺ flux and adaptation to metabolic stress in β cells

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Vitamin K: Could it be a Potential Treatment for Diabetes?

Vitamin K is a micronutrient known for its role in blood clotting, in particular in gamma-carboxylation, an enzymatic reaction essential to the process. It has been suspected for several years that this vitamin, and thus gamma-carboxylation, may have other functions as well.

Several studies suggest a link between a reduced intake of vitamin K and an increased risk of diabetes. However, the biological mechanisms by which vitamin K protects against diabetes remained a mystery until now.

The research explains how vitamin K can help prevent diabetes and potentially find new therapeutic applications for type 2 diabetes. The study was published in Cell Reports.

Enzymes in Vitamin K are to be Credited in Preventing Diabetes

In the study they conducted, UdeM associate research professor of medicine Mathieu Ferron and his team at the IRCM discovered that the enzymes involved in gamma-carboxylation, and thus in the use of vitamin K, were abundant in pancreatic beta cells, the cells that produce the vital insulin that regulates blood sugar levels.

"Diabetes is known to be caused by a reduction in the number of beta cells or by their inability to produce enough insulin, hence our keen interest in this novel finding," said Ferron, a leading researcher in molecular biology. "In order to elucidate the cellular mechanism by which vitamin K maintains beta cell function, it was essential to determine which protein was targeted by gamma-carboxylation in these cells."

"We were able to identify a new gamma-carboxylated protein called ERGP," added Julie Lacombe, who conducted the work in Ferron's laboratory. "Our study shows that this protein plays an important role in maintaining physiological levels of calcium in beta cells in order to prevent a disturbance of insulin secretion. Finally, we show that vitamin K through gamma-carboxylation is essential for ERGP to perform its role."

A unique vitamin K-dependent protein has been found for the first time in 15 years, opening up a new path of research in this area.

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Reference:

1. Vitamin K-dependent carboxylation regulates Ca2+ flux and adaptation to metabolic stress in β cells - (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37171959/)

Source-Medindia