Kappa Bioscience supports research on vitamin K deficiency and COVID-19 severity link

18 Nov 2020 --- Kappa Bioscience is supporting US-based University Hospitals (UH)’s research on the implications of vitamin K2 deficiency in COVID-19 pathogenesis and severity.

Equipped with the company’s active vitamin K2 MK-7, K2Vital, the UH researchers will investigate the potential correlations between inflammatory chemical mediators, status of vitamins K2 and D and COVID-19 severity in patients hospitalized at UH.

“We believe vitamin K2 can be a powerful force for health and well-being and that only research, transparency and verification together can truly engage this force,” Dominik Mattern, vice president of marketing at Kappa Bioscience, tells NutritionInsight.

Understanding early and late infection
The US health system will test blood samples from 100 COVID-19-positive patients for vitamins K2 and D3 status.

Using healthy volunteers as controls, the researchers will also investigate several inflammatory chemical mediators. One of them is tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), a cytokine that activates one of the central transcription factors in inflammatory processes.

The researchers aim to understand better the implications of vitamin K2 deficiency in COVID-19 pathogenesis.Trygve Bergeland, vice president of science at Kappa Bioscience, tells NutritionInsight that a major strength of the research project is the collection time of the samples. 

“Samples are collected at both early and late stages in each patient’s infection. This project will allow us to investigate all mentioned biomarkers at two separate stages of the disease. This will improve the understanding of vitamin K2 and D status together,” he explains.

Although research using blood samples from COVID-19 patients is “very important,” Bergeland also notes theirscarcity within the scientific community. 

“One challenge in this project is to get as much data as possible out of limited blood volumes. In this project, antibody-based methods and multiplex analysis will generate many analytes out of small volumes.” 

Vitamins D3 and K2: The potential COVID-19 link
The research collaboration builds on previous scientific evidence of the synergy between vitamins D and K2, and the role of vitamin K2 in immune health. 

Earlier last month, a Kappa Bioscience study review positioned vitamin K metabolism as the “potential missing link” between lung damage and thromboembolism – two of the most severe outcomes observed in COVID-19 patients.

All samples will be analyzed for both vitamin K2 and vitamin D status.Outside of the COVID-19 context, vitamin K has also been shown to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, while its deficiency has been linked to higher mortality rates.

Meanwhile, vitamin D has garnered tremendous industry interest as a potential low-cost means of reducing the risk of COVID-19. Crucially, previous Kappa Bioscience research has demonstrated how vitamins D3 and K2 each function more effectively in the presence of the other. 

Looking forward
Should the researchers find evidence of a possible benefit of vitamin K2 supplementation, principal investigator Dr. Grace McComsey says the project could go further and test this causality in prospective clinical trials. 

“Our intention is to continue the collaboration with Kappa Bioscience throughout this interesting project,” notes Dr. McComsey. 

“We are committed to investing further into research to develop the entire vitamin K2 world a little further every day. Collaboration and communication with the scientific community, our business partners and customers build the foundation for our work,” Mattern concludes.

By Anni Schleicher