[Biogenic nitric oxide: ten years of the second advent. Prehistory of discovery of the arginine-dependent NO biosynthesis].
This review has been written on the occasion of the decennial anniversary of the discovery of the arginine-oxygenase pathway for nitric oxide (NO) biosynthesis. This was one of the greatest and the most surprising discoveries in modern biochemistry and won the Nobel prize in 1998. The main steps of early studies are tracked. Many facts had pointed to the existence of biogenic NO long before 1987 but had been disregarded for reasons of psychology: it was hard to accept that NO is an assignable metabolite, since too many "inviolable" views had to be revised in this case.
Nedospasov
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Institute of Molecular Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia. nedospas@img.ras.ru
D000818:Animals; D001120:Arginine / Q000378:metabolism; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000266:history
D009569:Nitric Oxide; D001120:Arginine