Some people think it's the gas that makes us laugh at the dentist office.

Some think it's the fuel racecar

drivers use to speed up their cars. But it's neither. Nitric oxide is a molecule that our body produces to
help its 50 trillion cells communicate with each other by transmitting signals throughout the entire body.
Nitric oxide has been shown to be important in the following cellular activities:
Help memory and behavior by transmitting information between nerve cells in the brain
Assist the immune system at fighting off bacteria and defending against tumors
Regulate blood pressure by dilating arteries
Reduce inflammation
Improve sleep quality
Increase your recognition of sense (i.e. smell)
Increase endurance and strength
Assist in gastric motility

There have been over 60,000 studies done on nitric oxide in the last 20 years and in 1998, The Nobel
Prize for Medicine was given to three scientists that discovered the signaling role of nitric oxide.

Nitric oxide is produced by a group of enzymes called nitric oxide synthases. These
enzymes convert arginine into citrulline, producing NO in the process. Oxygen and
NADPH are necessary co-factors. There are three isoforms of nitric oxide synthase
(NOS) named according to their activity or the tissue type in which they were first
described. The isoforms of NOS are neuronal NOS (or nNOS), endothelial NOS (or
eNOS) and inducible NOS (or iNOS). These enzymes are also sometimes referred to
by number, so that nNOS is known as NOS1, iNOS is known as NOS2 and eNOS is
NOS3. Despite the names of these enzymes, all three isoforms can be found in a
variety of tissues and cell types. The general mechanism of NO production from
NOS is illustrated below.

Pharmacological uses Acridone has versatile biological activity. The literature

demonstrates that acridone shows anticancer, antimalarial, anti-inflammatory,
antiviral and antibacterial activities. Triazoloacridone, (i) exhibits antitumour activity.
It binds with DNA and induces structural modification [9]. Imidazoacridone (ii)
another acridone derivative antitumour agent binds DNA non covalently (by
intercalation) and covalently following oxidation metabolic activation [10]. 1, 3
diacetoxyacridone (ii) substituted at N10-position with substituted tertiary amino
propyl and tertiary amino butyl side chain also shows cytotoxic activity [11].
Acridone-10-yl acetic acid (Neovir) (iii) is found to be effective as antiviral drug.
Acridone-4-carboxylic acid (IV) shows its effect as RNA replication inhibitor and as
antiviral agent [12]. Recently 3-chloro-6-(2- diethylamino-ethoxy)-10-(2diethylaminoethyl) acridone is also reported to possess antimalarial activity [13]. 1,
3, 4 oxadiazole derivatives of acridone (vi) showed the significant antimicrobial
activity against the microorganisms [14]. N O HO NH(CH2)3N(CH3)2 N N (i) N O C

Synthesis
Ullmann synthesis
Ullmann synthesis involves the condensation of o-halobenzoic acids with
substituted aniline in the presence of copper powder and potassium carbonate to
give N-(substituted phenyl) anthranillic acids. The N-(substituted phenyl) anthranillic
acids cyclize to acridone/substituted acridones under the influence of strong acids
[6].