2023-05-19 09:06:21
In what constitutes a salutary advance in the understanding of the mechanisms underlying diabetes, a disease affecting 1 in 11 people in the world and which remains incurable, a research team from the Montreal Clinical Research Institute (IRCM), affiliated with the University of Montreal, highlighted a new role for vitamin K and gamma-carboxylation in beta cells and their potentially protective action once morest diabetes, achieving a first in 15 years in fundamental research. The results of this research are published in the journal Cell Reports.
Vitamin K is an essential micronutrient, known for its role in blood clotting, particularly in gamma-carboxylation, an enzymatic reaction essential to the process. It has been suspected for several years that this vitamin, and therefore gamma-carboxylation, might have other functions that are still poorly understood. Several studies thus indicate a link between a reduced intake of vitamin K and an increased risk of diabetes. However, the biological mechanisms by which vitamin K would protect once morest diabetes remained a mystery until then.
In depth
Mathieu Ferron with the two main collaborators of the study, Julie Lacombe Kevin Guo.
Credit: IRCM
In this work, the team of Dr Mathieu Ferron was initially able to determine that the enzymes involved in gamma-carboxylation and therefore in the use of vitamin K were present in large quantities in pancreatic beta cells, the very cells that produce the precious master insulin blood sugar levels. The Dr Ferron is also an associate research professor in the Department of Medicine at the Université de Montréal.
“We know that diabetes is caused by a reduction in the number of beta cells or their inability to produce enough insulin, hence our keen interest in this innovative finding. In order to elucidate the cellular mechanism by which vitamin K ensures the proper functioning of beta cells, it was necessary to know which protein was targeted by gamma-carboxylation in these cells”, underlines the Dr Ferron, a leader in the world of molecular biology research.
“We were thus able to uncover a new gamma-carboxylated protein called ERGP. Our study demonstrates that this protein plays an important role in maintaining physiological levels of calcium in beta cells in order to prevent dysregulation of insulin secretion. Finally, we establish that vitamin K through gamma-carboxylation is essential for the ERGP protein to exert its action”, completes Dre Julie Lacombe, who carried out this work in the laboratory of Dr.r Iron.
The interest of discovery
This work explains, at least in part, how vitamin K helps prevent diabetes, a disease that weighs heavily on our modern societies. Ultimately, this discovery might lead to new therapeutic applications using vitamin K or the ERGP protein for type 2 diabetes.
More fundamentally, it is the first time in 15 years that a new protein dependent on vitamin K has been discovered, which opens up a new field of research on this vitamin.
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