Abstract
Nitric oxide (NO) is a small gaseous molecule that is involved in some critical biochemical processes in the body such as the regulation of cerebral blood flow and pressure. Infection and inflammatory processes such as those caused by COVID-19 produce a disequilibrium in the NO bioavailability and/or a delay in the interactions of NO with other molecules contributing to the onset and evolution of cardiocerebrovascular diseases. A link between the SARS-CoV-2 virus and NO is introduced. Recent experimental observations of intracellular transport of metabolites in the brain and the NO trapping inside endothelial microparticles (EMPs) suggest the possibility of anomalous diffusion of NO, which may be enhanced by disease processes. A novel space-fractional reaction-diffusion equation to model NO biotransport in the brain is further proposed. The model incorporates the production of NO by synthesis in neurons and by mechanotransduction in the endothelial cells, and the loss of NO due to its reaction with superoxide and interaction with hemoglobin. The anomalous diffusion is modeled using a generalized Fick’s law that involves spatial fractional order derivatives. The predictive ability of the proposed model is investigated through numerical simulations. The implications of the methodology for COVID-19 outlined in the section “Discussion” are purely exploratory.
Highlights
Nitric oxide (NO) is a small gaseous molecule involved in crucial biochemical processes in the body, especially in the brain
The results suggest the existence of a narrow range of values of ε near 0.85 where a maximum value of the NO concentration at the endothelium is reached that decreases with an increase in vascular stiffness and/or a rise in the amount of superoxide
The neuronal NO synthesis is assumed to have the time-dependent profile of the Ca2+-calmodulin binding (Hall and Garthwaite, 2006), while the endothelial NO production is proportional to the viscous dissipation in the endothelium
Summary
Nitric oxide (NO) is a small gaseous molecule involved in crucial biochemical processes in the body, especially in the brain. In 1992, Koshland called NO “the molecule of the year” in the editorial of Science (Koshland, 1992), and in 1998, Furchgott, Ignarro, and Murad were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for its discovery (The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1998). As the scientific knowledge of the body’s chemophysical processes expands, and technology advances, new discoveries of the role of NO continue to be made. NO acts as a neuro-glial-vascular messenger regulating cerebral blood flow and the release of neurotransmitters
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