Recent developments in nitric oxide-releasing biomaterials for biomedical applications

Nitric oxide (NO) is an endogenous gas with several physiological activities. Owing to the NO physiological functions, such as inhibition of platelet aggregation and adhesion, vascular muscle relaxation, modulation of inflammation and immune response, antibacterial and anticancer activity, increasing attensions have been paid to the development of biomaterials with the ability to release this medical gas. Nowadays, numerous prodrugs have been developed to release NO in vivo. However, due to the low payloads and non-controlled delivery of the prodrug, the NO-releasing devices do not fulfil the expectations, which restricts their widespread application. Recently, several methods have been proposed to address the issue above, including physical and chemical methods and specific designs. This review aims to briefly introduce the latest achievements with recent 3 years involving coatings which mimic the vascular endothelium to treat atherosclerosis, nanocarriers which generate NO for a sustained anticancer treatment, and a framework which modifies the prodrug as a stable cardiovascular stent or as an anticancer targeted drug.