KPV

What it is

KPV takes its name from the three amino acids in its structure, lysine, proline and valine. Researchers clip it from the tail end (the C-terminal region) of a bigger hormone the body produces internally, alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone, which is better known for turning skin darker. Removing this small fragment appears to keep the anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial activity of the parent hormone while leaving the pigmentation effect behind.

Researchers are especially interested in KPV's reported ability to get inside cells, using a transport protein called PepT1, and act on a widely studied inflammation control switch called NF-kB. Because that switch and transporter are both active in the gut lining, most of the compound's research interest centers on inflammatory bowel disease.

How it is studied

The evidence base for KPV comes mostly from laboratory dish work using human intestinal cells and immune cells, and from mouse models of colitis, an inflamed gut condition, rather than trials in living people. A separate, older line of research tested KPV and its parent hormone against bacteria and yeast in the laboratory. Direct human clinical trials of KPV given to people were not identified in the record reviewed for this entry, and no study located here tested a skin applied form of KPV.

What studies report

• A laboratory study of alpha-MSH and its KPV fragment reported that both significantly reduced growth of the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus and reduced growth of the yeast Candida albicans across a range of concentrations. [1]
• A cell study reported that KPV enters human intestinal and immune cells through the PepT1 transporter and, once inside, reduces activation of the NF-kB signaling pathway along with the release of inflammatory signaling proteins. [2]
• That same study reported that giving KPV in drinking water reduced signs of colitis in two different mouse models of inflammatory bowel disease. [2]
• A separate mouse study reported that KPV treatment led to faster recovery, less weight loss, and fewer inflammatory cells in colon tissue in two additional mouse models of colitis. [3]

What is not known

No study located for this entry tested a skin applied form of KPV or measured its effect on psoriasis or any other skin condition, so a claim to that effect could not be verified here. Nearly all of the supporting evidence comes from cell culture work and mouse models of gut inflammation, so it is not known how closely these results would translate into a whole living human body, or whether oral or injected KPV would reduce inflammation in a person with inflammatory bowel disease. The record reviewed here contains no safety data covering extended human use.

Reported adverse findings

• None of the studies reviewed here reported a harmful effect from KPV itself; the antimicrobial study's main safety related observation was that alpha-MSH peptides increased rather than reduced the ability of human immune cells to kill the microbes tested. [1]

Regulatory status

Neither the United States Food and Drug Administration nor Health Canada has cleared KPV for sale as a drug or a supplement. It remains an experimental compound, studied so far only in laboratory dishes and in animals.