Biogenic nitric oxide: ten years of the second advent. Prehistory of discovery of the arginine-dependent NO biosynthesis
Nedospasov, A.A.
Bioorganicheskaia Khimiia 25(6): 403-411
1999
ISSN/ISBN: 0132-3423 PMID: 10505227 Document Number: 503671
This review has been written on the occasion of the decennial anniversary of the discovery of the arginine-oxygenase pathway for nitric oxide (NO) biosynthesis. This was one of the greatest and the most surprising discoveries in modern biochemistry and won the Nobel prize in 1998. The main steps of early studies are tracked. Many facts had pointed to the existence of biogenic NO long before 1987 but had been disregarded for reasons of psychology: it was hard to accept that NO is an assignable metabolite, since too many "inviolable" views had to be revised in this case.