title: Phototherapeutic Release of Nitric Oxide with Engineered Nanoconstructs.
abstract: The multiple role nitric oxide (NO) plays in a number of physiological and pathophysiological processes has, over the last few years, stimulated a massive interest in the development of new strategies and methods for generating NO in a controlled way, with the exciting prospect of tackling important diseases. Photochemical precursors of NO are particularly suited to this end because light triggering permits an exquisite control of location and timing of NO delivery. Integration of NO photodonors within the structure of appropriate materials represents a key step in the fabrication of functional devices for phototherapeutic applications. It also offers the advantage of concentrating a large number of chromophores in a restricted area with the result of significantly increasing the NO reservoir and the light harvesting properties. We present here an overview of the most significant advances made in the last 5 years in the fabrication of engineered nanoconstructs able to delivery NO under the exclusive control of light inputs, highlighting the logical design and their potential applications in battling cancer and bacterial infections.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Photochemistry, Department of Drug Sciences, University of Catania, 95125, Catania, Italy.
authors.forename: Aurore
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fraix
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Photochemistry, Department of Drug Sciences, University of Catania, 95125, Catania, Italy.
authors.forename: Nino
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Marino
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Photochemistry, Department of Drug Sciences, University of Catania, 95125, Catania, Italy. ssortino@unict.it.
authors.forename: Salvatore
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sortino
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D051379:Mice; D049329:Nanostructures; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D010789:Phototherapy
chemical_list: D009569:Nitric Oxide
keywords: Antibacterial therapy; Cancer therapy; Fluorescence imaging; Gel; Light; Nanomaterials; Nanoparticles; Nitric oxide; Polymers