ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the involvement of nitric oxide (NO) in disease and discusses NO as a target for therapeutic intervention, with a focus on scavenging and removal of NO as a strategy for NO-mediated disease. The discovery that nitrogen monoxide is a ubiquitous biological messenger molecule has radically changed our view of how cells communicate with one another. Nitric oxide has generally been regarded as a common environmental toxin and pollutant, being a constituent of both cigarette smoke and car exhaust emissions. Scavengers, in principle, provide a method of reducing excess, toxic levels of NO in compartments where NO levels have been elevated, while having a minimal effect on essential basal NO production. A variety of chemically diverse molecules are being studied as potential NO scavengers. Nitric oxide donor drugs have been in use since the late nineteenth century when the organic nitrates were first introduced for the treatment of angina.
