Three US researchers learned yesterday that they will share the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery that nitric oxide gas ( NO) acts as a messenger molecule in the body. The discovery led to the development of the drug to the popular impotence Viagra and offered hope of new treatments for blood pressure and tumor.
price $ 975,000 will be divided equally between Robert Furchgott pharmacologists at the University of New York in New York City, Louis Ignarro at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Ferid Murad to University of Texas Medical School, Houston, for their discovery of how the nitric oxide can pass a signal from one cell to another. Because NO is a simple molecule - it is a common pollutant in car exhaust gases -. Scientists were surprised by its sophisticated operation
In 1986, Furchgott and Ignarro presented their work independently showing that NO has worked as a signaling factor in the blood vessels, triggering research worldwide. It was later discovered that NO indicates blood vessels throughout the body to relax, which lowers blood pressure and increases blood flow. Murad, meanwhile, discovered that nitroglycerin, a longtime treatment for heart disease, works by releasing NO from cells. White blood cells also use gas to defend against tumors.
controversyThe price has already started. Strict rules prevent the Nobel committee to award the prize to more than three people, but critics say that the committee overlooked key researchers. In particular, the decision not to include pharmacologist Salvador Moncada at University College London drew fire from top scientists. Rudi Busse, a researcher of nitric oxide at the University of Frankfurt, said he was "extremely surprised" that Moncada, who led key experiences when he worked for the Wellcome Foundation in the 1980s, n has not been included.
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