SPECIAL FOCUS y Nitric oxide-releasing materials Special Report For reprint orders, please contact
[email protected] 1 Special Report 2015/06/30 Nitric oxide: a brief overview of chemical and physical properties relevant to therapeutic applications Future Sci. OA Nitric oxide (nitrogen monoxide, •NO) has been intensively studied by chemists and Jack R Lancaster Jr physicists for over 200 years and thus there is an extensive database of information Departments of Pharmacology & that determines its biological actions. This is a very brief overview of the chemical and Chemical Biology, Medicine, & Surgery, School of Medicine, University of physical properties of •NO that are most relevant to Biology in general and to the Pittsburgh, 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, 1(1), FSO59 development of •NO releasing materials in particular. PA 15260, USA
[email protected] Keywords: diffusion • oxidation-reduction • radical • transition metals In 1987 the startling discovery was made electron. This is due to the fact that it has that the small reactive radical molecule an odd total number of electrons (15). The nitric oxide (•NO; nitrogen monoxide) is property of possessing an unpaired electron specifically produced and functions as a is called paramagnetism and it is this prop major messenger in the mammalian cardio erty that most determines its chemical reac vascular system, for which the 1998 Nobel tivity. However, the small uncharged nature Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded of •NO is especially important in determin to Robert Furchgott, Louis Ignarro and Ferid ing mechanisms for its selective delivery, the Murad [1] . This discovery represented a classi topic of this monograph.