Louis Ignarro

American pharmacologist

Louis Joseph Ignarro (born May 31, 1941) is an American pharmacologist. For demonstrating the signaling properties of nitric oxide, he was co recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Robert F. Furchgott and Ferid Murad. Currently, he is professor emeritus of pharmacology at the UCLA School of Medicine's department of molecular and medical pharmacology in Los Angeles, which he joined in 1985. Before relocating to California, he was a professor of pharmacology at Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, for 12 years. Ignarro has also previously worked as a staff scientist, research department, for the pharmaceutical division of CIBA GEIGY Corporation in New York. Ignarro has published numerous research articles. He received the Basic Research Prize of the American Heart Association in 1998. This was in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the advancement of cardiovascular science. That same year, he was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences and the following year, into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Because nitric oxide is indirectly involved in the action of this drug, he is sometimes referred to as the "Father of Viagra". He is the founder of the Nitric Oxide Society, and founder and editor in chief of Nitric Oxide Biology and Chemistry. Ignarro holds a B. S. in pharmacy, Columbia University, 1962, and a Ph. D. in pharmacology, University of Minnesota, School of Medicine, 1966. He also received a postdoctoral fellowship in chemical pharmacology from National Institutes of Health in 1968. He is a member of the scientific committee of Nicox, a French pharmaceutical company, a member of the Board of Directors of Antibe Therapeutics, a Canadian drug discovery company, a member of the Board of Directors of Operation USA, a non profit organization, and is past member of the Nutritional Advisory Board for Herbalife, a multi level marketing company.

Louis J. Ignarro was born in 1941 in Brooklyn, New York. His parents were Italian immigrants and his father was a carpenter in Torre del Greco, near Naples. Ignarro grew up in Long Beach, NY, which is a suburb of New York City, NY on the south shore of Long Island, NY. Ignarro received his first chemistry set as a gift at the age of 8. Ignarro is married to anesthesiologist Dr. Sharon Ignarro and lives in Beverly Hills, CA. Ignarro has published multiple books for lay audiences about health and wellness focusing on the benefits of increasing nitric oxide production. He is a frequent public speaker on these and related topics.

Ignarro attended Central Grade School and Long Beach High School. A strong interest in science led Ignarro to Columbia University where he studied chemistry and pharmacology and in 1962 received a bachelor's degree in pharmacy from the Columbia University College of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Ignarro then attended the University of Minnesota where he received a Ph. D. in pharmacology. His university studies also concentrated in chemistry, enzymology and cardiovascular physiology, which resulted in several published papers. While at the University of Minnesota, Ignarro studied under eventual Nobel Prize winning chemist Paul Boyer. Ignarro's research demonstrated that nitric oxide serves the functions of vasorelaxant and inhibitor of platelet aggregation, with both effects mediated by cyclic GMP. Ignarro continued his research at Tulane. In 1984 he realized that the properties of nitric oxide were the same as those seen in the endothelium derived relaxing factor (EDRF) previously identified by Robert Furchgott 3 years earlier. The exact nature of the EDRF was up to this point unknown. Furchgott and Ignarro came to similar conclusions about nitric oxide as the EDRF around the same time, but it was Ignarro who presented hard experimental evidence in support of this notion at conferences during 1986 demonstrating that EDRF is nitric oxide. Ignarro endorsed this product in exchange for a royalty agreement reported to have earned his consulting firm over $1 million in the first 12 months. Ignarro has continued to work with Herbalife to develop additional supplements focusing on nutrients such as Omega 3 fatty acid and CoQ10. As of 2012, Herbalife has made payments to Ignarro and his affiliated consulting firm of over $15 million. Ignarro appears in videos promoting Niteworks and other Herbalife products, and is a frequent speaker at Herbalife events. Since partnering with Herbalife, Ignarro has spoken to more than 5,000,000 people worldwide about nitric oxide and cardiovascular health.

While testifying before Congress in 2000, Ignarro remarked: "Only in America could the son of an uneducated carpenter receive the Nobel Prize in Medicine".

NO More Heart Disease: How Nitric Oxide Can Prevent – Even Reverse – Heart Disease and Strokes. New York: St. Martin's Press (2005). Nitric Oxide: Biology and Pathobiology. Academic Press (2009). Health Is Wealth: 10 Power Nutrients That Increase Your Odds Of Living To 100. Health Value Publications (2009). Health Is Wealth: Performance Nutrition. Health Value Publications (2011). Survival of the Firmest: UCLA Doctors Describe Ten Steps to Better Erections, a Longer Life and Reversing Erectile Dysfunction (ED). CreateSpace (2011). Dr. NO: The Discovery That Led to a Nobel Prize and Viagra. Vertel Publishing (2022). .

1979 CA Gruetter, BK Barry, DB McNamara, DY Gruetter, PJ Kadowitz and LJ Ignarro. Relaxation of bovine coronary artery and activation of coronary arterial guanylate cyclase by nitric oxide, nitroprusside and a carcinogenic nitrosoamine. J. Cyclic Nucl. Res. 5: 211–224. 1980 LJ Ignarro and CA Gruetter. Requirement of thiols for activation of coronary arterial guanylate cyclase by glyceryl trinitrate and sodium nitrite: Possible involvement of S nitrosothiols. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 631: 221–231. 1981 BT Mellion, LJ Ignarro, EH Ohlstein, EG Pontecorvo, AL Hyman and PJ Kadowitz. Evidence for the inhibitory role of guanosine 3',5' monophosphate in ADP induced human platelet aggregation. Blood 57: 946–955. 1981 LJ Ignarro, H Lippton, JC Edwards, WH Baricos, AL Hyman, PJ Kadowitz and CA Gruetter. Mechanism of vascular smooth muscle relaxation by organic nitrates, nitrites, nitroprusside and nitric oxide: Evidence for the involvement of Snitrosothiols as active intermediates. J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther. 218: 739–749. 1982 MS Wolin, KS Wood and LJ Ignarro. Guanylate cyclase from bovine lung: a kinetic analysis of the regulation of the purified soluble enzyme by protoporphyrin IX, heme and nitrosyl heme. J. Biol. Chem. 257: 13312 13320. 1984 LJ Ignarro, B Ballot and KS Wood. Regulation of guanylate cyclase activity by porphyrins and metalloporphyrins. J. Biol. Chem. 259: 6201–6207. 1986 LJ Ignarro, RG Harbison, KS Wood and PJ Kadowitz. Activation of purified soluble guanylate cyclase by endothelium derived relaxing factor from intrapulmonary artery and vein: stimulation by acetylcholine, bradykinin and arachidonic acid. J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther. 237: 893–900. 1987 LJ Ignarro, RE Byrns, GM Buga and KS Wood. Endothelium derived relaxing factor from pulmonary artery and vein possesses pharmacological and chemical properties that are identical to those for nitric oxide radical. Circ. Res. 61: 866–879. 1987 LJ Ignarro, GM Buga, KS Wood, RE Byrns and G Chaudhuri. Endothelium derived relaxing factor produced and released from artery and vein is nitric oxide. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 84: 9265–9269. 1990 LJ Ignarro, PA Bush, GM Buga, KS Wood, JM Fukuto and J Rajfer. Nitric oxide and cyclic GMP formation upon electrical field stimulation cause relaxation of corpus cavernosum smooth muscle. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 170: 843–850. 1992 J Rajfer, WJ Aronson, PA Bush, FJ Dorey and LJ Ignarro. Nitric oxide as a mediator of relaxation of the corpus cavernosum in response to nonadrenergic, noncholinergic neurotransmission. N. Engl. J. Med. 326: 90–94. 1994 JM Griscavage, JM Fukuto, Y Komori and LJ Ignarro. Nitric oxide inhibits neuronal nitric oxide synthase by interacting with the heme prosthetic group: role of tetrahydrobiopterin in modulating the inhibitory action of nitric oxide. J. Biol. Chem. 269: 21644 21649. 1994 AJ Hobbs, JM Fukuto and LJ Ignarro. Formation of free nitric oxide from Larginine by nitric oxide synthase: direct enhancement of generation by superoxide dismutase. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 91: 10992 10996. 1996 JM Griscavage, S Wilk and LJ Ignarro. Inhibitors of the proteasome pathway interfere with induction of nitric oxide synthase in macrophages by blocking activation of nuclear factor kappa B. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93:3308–3312. 1999 HC Champion, TJ Bivalacqua, AL Hyman, LJ Ignarro, WJG Hellstrom and PJ Kadowitz. Gene transfer of endothelial nitric oxide synthase to the penis augments erectile responses in the aged rat. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96:11648 11652. 2001 LJ Ignarro, GM Buga, LH Wei, PM Bauer, G Wu and P del Soldato. Role of the arginine nitric oxide pathway in the regulation of vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 98: 4202–4208. 2001 PM Bauer, GM Buga, JM Fukuto, AE Pegg and LJ Ignarro. Nitric oxide inhibits ornithine decarboxylase via S nitrosylation of cysteine 360 in the active site of the enzyme. J. Biol. Chem. 276: 34458 34464. 2001 PM Bauer, GM Buga and LJ Ignarro. Role of p42/p44 mitogen activated protein kinase and p21waf1/cip1 in the regulation of vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation by nitric oxide. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 98: 12802 12807. 2003 F de Nigris, LO Lerman, SW Ignarro, G Sica, A Lerman, W Palinski, LJ Ignarro and C Napoli. Beneficial effects of antioxidants and L arginine on oxidation sensitive gene expression and endothelial NO synthase activity at sites of disturbed shear stress. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 100:1420–1425. 2003 D Sumi and LJ Ignarro. Estrogen related receptor alpha 1 up regulates endothelial nitric oxide synthase expression. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 100:14451 14456. 2004 T Hayashi, D Sumi, PA Juliet, H Matsui Hirai, Y Asai Tanaka, H Kano, A Fukatsu, T Tsunekawa, A Miyazaki, A Iguchi and LJ Ignarro. Gene transfer of endothelial NO synthase, but not eNOS plus inducible NOS, regressed atherosclerosis in rabbits. Cardiovasc. Res. 61:339–351. 2004 C Napoli, SW Ignarro, F de Nigris, LO Lerman, L Rossi, C Guarino, G Mansueto, F Di Tuoro, O Pignalosa, G De Rosa, V Sica and LJ Ignarro. Long term combined beneficial effects of physical training and metabolic treatment on atherosclerosis in hypercholesterolemic mice. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101:8797–8802. 2005 HJ Garban, D Marquez Garban, R Pietras and LJ Ignarro. Rapid nitric oxidemediated S nitrosylation of estrogen receptor: Regulation of estrogen dependent gene transcription. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102:2632–2636.