Review Article Vitamin D Receptor Agonists Target CXCL10: New Therapeutic Tools for Resolution of Inflammation

Copyright © 2013 Sabino Scolletta et al.This is an open access article distributed under the Creative CommonsAttribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Understanding the many biological extraskeletal actions of vitamin D has increased in the past decades. Indeed, vitamin D and analogue molecules, besides the classical actions on bone metabolism, exert several beneficial effects on metabolic homeostasis, heart-cardiovascular, brain, and muscle physiological functions, throughout the interaction with the specific vitamin D receptor (VDR). In particular, VDR agonists powerfully control innate and adaptive immune systemwith favorable effects on human health. VDR ligands act as immunomodulators that are potent enough to retain anti-inflammatory effects, even though the mechanism underlying those effects is not yet fully elucidated. VDR agonists exert a significant suppression of inflammatory processes switching the immune response from T helper 1 (Th1) to T helper 2 (Th2) dominance and counteracting the self-enhancing inflammatory loop between immune and resident cells, especially by cytokine release impairment.Thosemolecules are able, indeed, to reduce the release of the interferon (IFN