Long-sought mediator of vitamin K recycling discovered

Ward, Nathan P.; DeNicola, Gina M.

doi:10.1038/d41586-022-02001-6

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03 August 2022

Long-sought mediator of vitamin K recycling discovered

The identity of the enzyme that enables vitamin K to combat the adverse side effects of a drug called warfarin has been long sought. Analysis of a type of cell death called ferroptosis has now unexpectedly solved the mystery.

Nathan P. Ward⁰ &
Gina M. DeNicola¹

Nathan P. Ward
1. Nathan P. Ward is in the Department of Cancer Physiology, Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida 33612, USA.
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Gina M. DeNicola
1. Gina M. DeNicola is in the Department of Cancer Physiology, Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida 33612, USA.
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Vitamin K was discovered by the biochemist Henrik Dam in 1936, and named after its role in promoting blood clotting, or koagulation, in Dam’s native Danish¹. The vitamin is a type of molecule called a naphthoquinone. It can exist in multiple forms, but only one supports clotting — the ‘reduced hydroquinone’ form, known as VKH2. Levels of VKH2 are maintained in the body by the enzyme vitamin K epoxide reductase (VKOR), which is part of the major (canonical) vitamin K recycling pathway. Writing in Nature, Mishima et al.² pin down the identity of a different reductase enzyme that has a role in another crucial vitamin K recycling pathway.

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Nature 608, 673-674 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-02001-6

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