Nitric Oxide-Releasing Platforms for Treating Cardiovascular Disease

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the first leading cause of death globally. Nitric oxide (NO) is an important signaling molecule that mediates diverse processes in the cardiovascular system, thereby providing a fundamental basis for NO-based therapy of CVD. At present, numerous pro-drugs have been developed to release NO in vivo. However, the clinical application of these pro-drugs still faces many problems, including the low payloads, burst release, and non-controlled de-livery. To address these, various biomaterial-based platforms have been developed as the carriers to deliver NO to the targeted tissues in a controlled and sustained manner. This review aims to summarize recent developments of various therapeutic platforms, engineered to release NO for the treatment of CVD. In addition, two potential strategies to improve the effectiveness of existing NO therapy are also discussed, including the combination of NO-releasing platforms and either hydrogen sulfide-based therapy or stem cell therapy. Hopefully, some NO-releasing platforms may pro-vide important therapeutic benefits for CVD.