Photocontrollable NO-releasing compounds and their biological applications

Photocontrollable nitric oxide (NO)-releasing compounds, or caged NOs, are very useful to expose cells or tissues to NO in a spatiotemporally well-controlled manner, e.g., for precise investigations of biological responses to NO and NO-related signaling pathways. We have developed photocontrollable NO releasers based on two mechanisms: photoinduced isomerization reaction of a dimethylnitrobenzene moiety conjugated with a pi-electron system, and photoinduced electron transfer of a moderately electron-rich N-nitroso aminophenol moiety linked with an antenna dye moiety. In this review, we describe the development of our photoinduced NO releasers based on these mechanisms, and present examples of cellular and ex vivo applications.