Nitric Oxide And Inflammation

Literally thousands of papers have been published on nitric oxide over the past ten years. But there is no single monograph available that has previously attempted to summarize the important features of the roles of nitric oxide in inflammation. The voluminous literature regarding the incredible range of chemical and biological effects of nitric oxide and reactive nitrogen oxide species, RNOS, may present a tangle of confusing information to the researcher. This volume brings together experts from nitric oxide and inflammation research and presents a concise up-to-date overview as well as future aspects of this rapidly growing field.

Nitric Oxide in Health and Disease: Therapeutic Applications in Cancer and Inflammatory Disorders presents updated information on the chemistry, signaling of newly derived therapeutic nitric oxide donors/inhibitors, and their complexes in liposomes or nanospheres in both pre-clinical and clinical activities. The book discusses many examples of research related to the application of novel therapeutic compounds that focus on a chemical—nitric oxide—and its applications that have been shown to exert significant therapeutic activities against various resistant cancers unresponsive to current treatments and different inflammatory diseases which continue to require novel treatments. This is a valuable resource for cancer researchers, oncologists, graduate students and researchers from medical and biomedical fields who want to know more about NO and its therapeutic applications in cancer and inflammatory diseases. Provides updated reviews on the chemistry and signaling of newly derived therapeutic nitric oxide (NO) donors/inhibitors and their complexes in liposomes or nanospheres in both pre-clinical and clinical activities Discusses the application of NO in monotherapy or in combination with conventional therapies in a variety of cancers and inflammatory diseases Encompasses real-world examples of recent research related to NO and cancer

Since the discovery of nitric oxide as an endothelium-derived relaxing factor in 1987, investigations on its precise modes of action have been carried out at an extraordinary rate. Nitric oxide is now implicated in many physiological and pathological processes — not just in the control of vascular resistance, but in nerve transmission, cell proliferation, inflammatory responses and so on. Despite such rapid progress, no attempt has been made to combine the current knowledge of this subject matter in a single textbook. This volume has been written with the above in mind and presents a topical, comprehensive overview of the biochemistry and the physiological and pathophysiological effects of nitric oxide as they relate to the cardiovascular system. The therapeutic implications of nitric oxide are also considered. The text comprises contributions from many of the leading international authorities on the topic including Professor L J Ignarro, winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Contents:Physiology and Biochemistry of Nitric Oxide:Chemistry and Molecular Biology of Nitric Oxide Synthesis (A J Hobbs & L J Ignarro)Nitric Oxide Synthases Biology: Insights Gained from ‘Knockout’ Mice (A Papapetropoulos et al.)Inhibitors of Nitric Oxide Biosynthesis (G J Southan et al.)Peripheral Vascular Effects of Nitric Oxide:The Role of Nitric Oxide in Cerebrovascular Regulation and Stroke (C Iadecola)The Physiological and Pathophysiological Effects of Nitric Oxide in the Coronary Circulation (P Groves)The Effect of Nitric Oxide on Myocardial Function and Dysfunction (B D Prendergast & A M Shah)Clinical Implications of Nitric Oxide:Oxidative Tissue Injury, Nitric Oxide and Atherosclerosis (R P Patel et al.)Endothelial Dysfunction Associated with Cardiovascular Disease and Transplantation (G J Dusting & A M Dart)The Role and Therapeutic Implications of Nitric Oxide in Systemic Hypertension (P Forte & N Benjamin)and other papers Readership: Students and researchers in physiology, biochemistry and clinical methods/ laboratory medicine. Keywords:Endothelium;Vascular Smooth Muscle;Nitric Oxide Synthase;Nitrovasodilator;Shear Stress;Atherosclerosis;Hypertension;Septic Shock;Microcirculation;Coronary Circulation;Cerebal Circulation;Renal Circulation;Hepatic Circulation;Intestinal Circulation

As in so many fields of scientific endeavour following the molecular biology revo lution, our knowledge of the role of radicals not only in pathological states, but in basic physiology has developed exponentially. Indeed, our evolving concepts have, like so many political parties, been forced into dramatic "V-turns" and contortions. Within our working lives, we have had to debate whether radicals made any con tribution to any pathology, whilst now it is difficult not to entertain the view that every physiological process is pivotally controlled by exquisitely sensitive radical reactions. Inflammation is, of course, an example of pathology evolving from physiology, and in this book we have called upon both scientists and clinicians who have research interests in the complex switching mechanisms that sustain these transi tions. The book as a whole explores, from a physiological standpoint, how deter ministic radical systems sensitive to their initial conditions can interdigitate, iterate and feed back to control diverse cellular processes that create the inflammatory response. Whilst systems such as these to a mathematician would provide the basis for a chaotic response, one is forced to marvel how, for all stages of an inflammatory reaction, this system appears exquisitely controlled, making therapeutic manipula tion both possible and, to some extent, predictable.

Inflammation has been described as the basis of many pathologies of human disease. When one considers the updated signs of inflammation, they would be vasodilation, cell migration, and, in the case of chronic inflam- tion, cell proliferation, often with an underlying autoimmune basis. Gen- ally, inflammation may be divided into acute, chronic, and autoimmune, - though the editors believe that most, if not all, chronic states are often the result of an autoimmune response to an endogenous antigen. Thus, a proper understanding of the inflammatory basis may provide clues to new therap- tic targets not only in classical inflammatory diseases, but atherosclerosis, cancer, and ischemic heart disease as well. The lack of advances in classical inflammatory diseases, such as rh- matoid arthritis, may in part arise from a failure to classify the disease into different forms. That different forms exist is exemplified in patients with d- fering responses to existing antiinflammatory drugs, ranging from nonresponders to very positive responders for a particular nonsteroidal an- inflammatory drug (NSAID). Though researchers have progressively unr- eled the mechanisms, the story is far from complete. It should also be noted that the inflammatory response is part of the innate immune response, or to use John Hunter’s words in 1795, “inflammation is a salutary response.” That may be applied in particular to the defensive response to invading micro- ganisms.