Nitric Oxide-Releasing Biomaterials for Biomedical Applications

Nitric oxide (NO), as an essential signaling molecule, participates in various physiological processes such as cardiovascular homeostasis, neuronal transmission, immunomodulation, and tumor growth. The multiple role of NO in physiology and pathophysiology has triggered a massive interest in the strategies of delivering exogenous NO for biomedical applications. Hence, different kinds of NO prodrugs have been developed up to date, including diazeniumdiolates, S-nitrosothiol, metal-nitrosyl, nitrobenzene, and so on. However, the clinical application of these low molecular weight NO donors has been restricted due to the problems of burst release, low payloads, and untargeted delivery. The delivery of NO by biomaterial-based carrier offers a beneficial strategy to realize the controlled and sustained delivery of NO to the targeted tissues or organs. In detail, NO-donor prodrugs have been attached and loaded to diverse biomaterials to fabricate nanoparticles, hydrogels, and coating platforms by means of physical, chemical, or supramolecular techniques. These NO-releasing biomaterials hold promise for a number of biomedical applications ranging from therapy of the ischemic disease and several types of cancer to cardiovascular devices and wound dressing. First, surface coating with NO-releasing biomaterials could mimic the physiological function of vascular endothelium, therefore promoting vascularization and improving the patency of cardiovascular implants. Next, because NO also mediates many important processes that take place after cutaneous injury, NO-releasing biomaterials could serve as ideal wound dressing to accelerate tissue regeneration. Finally, biomaterials enable localized delivery of high dose of NO to tumors in a sustained manner, thus generating potent tumoricidal effect. In this review, we will summarize the progress of different NO-releasing biomaterials, and highlight their biomedical applications with a hope to inspire new perspectives in the area of biomaterial-based NO-delivery systems.