Nitric oxide and viral infection: Recent developments in antiviral therapies and platforms

Nitric oxide (NO) is a gasotransmitter of great significance to developing the innate immune response to many bacterial and viral infections, while also modulating vascular physiology. The generation of NO from the upregulation of endogenous nitric oxide synthases serves as an efficacious method for inhibiting viral replication in host defense and warrants investigation for the development of antiviral therapeutics. With increased incidence of global pandemics concerning several respiratory-based viral infections, it is necessary to develop broad therapeutic platforms for inhibiting viral replication and enabling more effi-cient host clearance, as well as to fabricate new materials for deterring viral transmission from medical devices. Recent developments in creating stabilized NO donor compounds and their incorporation into macromolecular scaffolds and polymeric substrates has created a new paradigm for developing NO-based therapeutics for long-term NO release in applications for bactericidal and blood-contacting surfaces. De-spite this abundance of research, there has been little consideration of NO-releasing scaffolds and sub-strates for reducing passive transmission of viral infections or for treating several respiratory viral infec-tions. The aim of this review is to highlight the recent advances in developing gaseous NO, NO prodrugs, and NO donor compounds for antiviral therapies; discuss the limitations of NO as an antiviral agent; and outline future prospects for guiding materials design of a next generation of NO-releasing antiviral platforms. (c) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Nitric oxide plays a significant role in developing innate immune response and modulating vascular physiology; generating NO can effectively inhibit viral replication. With the increasing need for treating respiratory viral infections, developing NO-based antiviral therapies and new materials is important.