The inflammatory process in Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been suggested to include oxidative and nitrosative damage caused by elevated levels of nitric oxide (NO) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS). Here, we investigated iNOS expression in cortical neurons following amyloid-beta (A beta) treatment, vitamin D treatment, A beta combined with vitamin D treatment, and vitamin D signaling disruption via silencing of nuclear (vitamin D receptor-VDR) or membrane vitamin D (1,25-MARRS) receptors. We observed that A beta induced iNOS expression. Vitamin D prevented A beta-induced cytotoxicity and iNOS upregulation in cortical neurons. Our silencing experiments suggest that vitamin D regulates iNOS via VDR, not 1,25-MARRS, in cortical neurons. Consequently, VDR absence induces iNOS expression in either the absence or presence of A beta. While our previous work demonstrates that A beta pathology includes VDR suppression, our present work demonstrates that A beta induces iNOS and that this effect is mediated via disruption of the vitamin D-VDR pathway. These data suggest the existence of crosstalk between A beta pathology and VDR. Thus, vitamin D supplementation should be considered a candidate in both the treatment and prevention of AD.
