Mechanism of Action
Nitric Oxide Signaling
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Nitric oxide is a short-lived gas produced by the cells lining blood vessels, mainly through the enzyme eNOS. It relaxes the smooth muscle in vessel walls, which widens the vessel, and it also carries signals in nerves and immune cells. Compounds filed here either raise nitric oxide production or act on the pathway it feeds.
Why it matters here
This mechanism links records that otherwise look unrelated, because cardiovascular, sexual health and wound repair claims all run partly through vessel tone and blood delivery.
What it is not
Nitric oxide, NO, is not nitrous oxide, N2O, and not nitric acid; the abbreviations sit close together and the confusion is common. Raising nitric oxide is also a vascular action, not an erectile or athletic outcome, and those are separate claims needing separate evidence.
Also called
- nitric oxide
- no signaling
- enos
- nitric-oxide signalling
- nitric-oxide signaling
- no pathway
- nitric oxide pathway
eNOS is endothelial nitric oxide synthase, the enzyme that makes nitric oxide in vessel walls. In this context NO means nitric oxide, not the English word.