It is Rocket Science - Why dietary nitrate is hard to beet! Part I: Twists and turns in the realisation of the nitrate-nitrite-NO pathway

Jibran Khatri, Charlotte Elizabeth Mills, Perry Maskell, Chimed Odongerel, Andrew James Webb

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45 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

Dietary nitrate (found in green leafy vegetables such as rocket and in beetroot) is now recognised to be an important source of nitric oxide, via the nitrate-nitrite-NO pathway. Dietary nitrate confers several cardiovascular beneficial effects on blood pressure, platelets, endothelial function, mitochondrial efficiency and exercise. Whilst this pathway may now seem obvious, its realisation followed a rather tortuous course over two decades. Early steps included the discovery that nitrite was a source of NO in the ischaemic heart, but this appeared to have deleterious effects. In addition, nitrate-derived nitrite provided a gastric source of NO. However, residual nitrite was not thought to be absorbed systemically. Nitrite was also considered to be physiologically inert, but potentially carcinogenic, through N-nitrosamine formation. In Part I we describe key twists and turns in the elucidation of the pathway and the underlying mechanisms. This provides the critical foundation for the more recent developments in the nitrate-nitrite-NO pathway which are covered in Part II. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Original languageEnglish
JournalBritish Journal of Clinical Pharmacology
Early online date20 Feb 2016
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 20 Feb 2016

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