Nanoparticulated Nitric Oxide Donors and their Biomedical Applications

The small molecule nitric oxide (NO) plays important roles in many vital physiological and pathophysiological processes, including the modulation of cardiovascular processes, and key functions in the immune, nervous e respiratory systems. Several pathological conditions, such as sexual dysfunction and hypertension, are associated with deficiencies in the NO production or its inactivation. Due to the relative instability of NO in biological system, there is an increasing interest in the preparation of NO carriers as an efficient platform to carry and deliver therapeutic and relevant amounts of NO in biomedical applications. Among these approaches, NO-releasing nanomaterials have been described as promising strategy that could promote the spatio-temporal production of NO, in several pharmacological applications. The scope of this review is to point out the recent advances in the synthesis of versatile NO-releasing nanomaterials based on several materials, including polymeric nanoparticles, dendrimers, liposomes, solid lipid nanoparticles, metallic nanoparticles, silica nanoparticles, and carbon nanotubes. Although important progress in this area, some drawbacks still need to be overcome in order to translate these research innovations into practical applications. In this scenario, this review describes the state of the art of versatile nanostructured NO donors and their biomedical applications.