Vitamin D receptor agonist VS-105 directly modulates parathyroid hormone expression in human parathyroid cells and in 5/6 nephrectomized rats

•VS-105 effectively down-regulates PTH mRNA expression in human parathyroid cells.•VS-105 reduces secreted PTH in human parathyroid cells.•VS-105 also up-regulates VDR and CaSR in human parathyroid cells.•In 5/6 NX rats, VS-105 exerts a rapid effect on reducing serum PTH. Vitamin D receptor (VDR) agonists (VDRAs) are commonly used to treat secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHPT) associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Current VDRA therapy often causes hypercalcemia, which is a critical risk for vascular calcification. Previously we have shown that a novel VDRA, VS-105, effectively suppresses serum parathyroid hormone (PTH) without affecting serum calcium levels in 5/6 nephrectomized (NX) uremic rats. However, it is not known whether VS-105 directly regulates PTH gene expression. To study the direct effect of VS-105 on modulating PTH, we tested VS-105 and paricalcitol in the spheroid culture of parathyroid cells from human SHPT patients, and examined the time-dependent effect of the compounds on regulating serum PTH in 5/6 NX uremic rats (i.p. 3x/week for 14days). In human parathyroid cells, VS-105 (100nM) down-regulated PTH mRNA expression (to 3.6% of control) and reduced secreted PTH (to 43.9% of control); paricalcitol was less effective. VS-105 effectively up-regulated the expression of VDR (1.9-fold of control) and CaSR (1.8-fold of control) in spheroids; paricalcitol was also less effective. In 5/6 NX rats, one single dose of 0.05–0.2μg/kg of VS-105 or 0.02–0.04μg/kg of paricalcitol effectively reduced serum PTH by >40% on Day 2. Serum PTH remained suppressed during the dosing period, but tended to rebound in the paricalcitol groups. These data indicate that VS-105 exerts a rapid effect on suppressing serum PTH, directly down-regulates the PTH gene, and modulates PTH, VDR and CaSR gene expression more effectively than paricalcitol.