Prevention of nitric oxide-induced neuronal injury through the modulation of independent pathways of programmed cell death

Neuronal injury may be dependent upon the generation of the free radical nitric oxide (NO) and the subsequent induction of programed cell death (PCD). Although the nature of this injury may be both preventable and reversible, the underlying mechanisms that mediate PCD are not well understood. Using the agent nicotinamide as an investigative tool in primary rat hippocampal neurons, the authors examined the ability to modulate two independent components of PCD, namely the degradation of genomic DNA and the early exposure of membrane phosphatidylserine (PS) residues. Neuronal injury was determined through trypan blue dye exclusion, DNA fragmentation, externalization of membrane PS residues, cysteine protease activation, and the measurement of intracellular pH (pH(i)). Exposure to the NO donors SIN-1 and NOC-9 (300 mu mol/L) alone rapidly increased genomic DNA fragmentation from 20 +/- 4% to 71 +/- 5% and membrane PS exposure from 14 neuroprotective concentration of nicotinamide (12.5 mmol/L) consistently maintained DNA integrity and prevented the progression of membrane PS exposure. Posttreatment paradigms with nicotinamide at 2, 4, and 6 hours after NO exposure further demonstrated the ability of this agent to prevent and reverse neuronal PCD. Although not dependent upon pH,, neuroprotection by nicotinamide was linked to the modulation of two independent components of neuronal PCD through the regulation of caspase 1 and caspase 3-like activities and the DNA repair enzyme poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase. The current work lays the foundation for the development of therapeutic strategies that may not only prevent the course of PCD, bur may also offer the ability for the repair of neurons that have been identified through the loss of membrane asymmetry for subsequent destruction.