CORM-A1: a new pharmacologically active carbon monoxide-releasing molecule

SPECIFIC AIMS Carbon monoxide (CO) is emerging as an important and versatile mediator of physiological processes in that treatment of animals with exogenous CO gas has beneficial effects in a range of vascular and inflammatory-related disease models. The recent discovery that certain transition metal carbonyls function as CO-releasing molecules (CO-RMs) in biological systems highlighted the potential of exploiting this and similar classes of compounds as a stratagem to deliver CO for therapeutic purposes. We report on the biochemical features of a newly identified water-soluble CO releaser (Na2 [H3BCO2], here termed CORM-A1) that, unlike the first prototypic molecule recently described by us (CORM-3), does not contain a transition metal and liberates CO at a much slower rate under physiological conditions. The intrinsic biochemical behavior of CORM-A1 as a slow CO releaser reflects its …