 |
 |
NITRIC OXIDE WORK WINS NOBEL PRIZE Three American researchers working with nitric oxide won this year's Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday, October 12. Nitric oxide (NO) had been thought of as a harmful substance to the human body. It is a gas produced in the body. It is one of the main pollutants coming from automobile exhaust. Many have thought that it is one of the chemicals which causes cell death in PD. NO is also a byproduct of nitroglycerin and dynamite, the source of Nobel wealth. It also is a neurotransmitter which tells blood vessels to dilate when more blood is needed or blood pressure is too high. Inhibiting NO is the action in the new impotence drug Viagra. NO is different from nitrous oxide (N2O), an anesthetic commonly known as laughing gas. Nitric oxide may be of extreme importance in Parkinson's disease research and treatment. I have suspected that nitric oxide imbalance may be a part of my PD. At Johns Hopkins, Drs. Dawson [Ted & Val] have work in progress applying NO as a neuron protector. Some other Parkinson's research hospitals' researchers are using NO as a brain capillary relaxer to send more blood to the brain. These projects are generally still in the laboratory animal stage, but with the Udall Center of Excellence money, research may move more quickly. There is a professional society for those studying nitric oxide. The motto, taken from the Reagan years, is Just say NO.