Dr. Bryan earned his undergraduate Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin and his doctoral degree from the Louisiana State University School of Medicine in Shreveport, where he was the recipient of the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research. He pursued his post-doctoral training as a Kirschstein Fellow at the Boston University School of Medicine in the Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute. After a two-year post-doctoral fellowship, in 2006, Dr. Bryan was recruited to join the faculty at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston by Ferid Murad, M.D., Ph.D., a 1998 Nobel Laureate in Medicine or Physiology. Dr. Bryan has been involved in nitric oxide research for more than 20 years and has made many seminal discoveries in the field. Dr. Bryan is a successful entrepreneur and the founder of Human to the Power of n, Inc, Pneuma Nitric Oxide, LLC, Nitric Oxide Innovations, LLC, and Bryan Nitriceuticals, LLC.
Imagine, if you will, a single molecule that is naturally produced in the human body that could transform and improve the management of most chronic diseases. That is the great hope and expectation by the scientific and medical community for nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is a signaling molecule naturally produced in the human body that regulates a number of important biological processes. It controls and regulates blood pressure, oxygen delivery and the delivery of nutrients to every organ, tissue, and cell in the body. It also acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain and works to kill invading pathogens such as viruses and bacteria. Appreciating this, one can now imagine what can happen if our body loses its ability to produce such an essential molecule. Blood pressure goes up, sexual dysfunction occurs, mild cognitive disorders begin, the body becomes susceptible to viral and bacterial infections, the ability to fully oxygenate tissue is compromised along with a number of other symptoms and health problems. The discovery of nitric oxide was so profound and fundamental that a Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology was awarded to three U.S. scientists in 1998.
We now live in a world where more than 60% of the global population is living with a chronic disease and 70% of all death can be attributed to a chronic disease. Cardiovascular disease remains the number one killer of men and women worldwide despite billions of dollars in research spent every year. This is simply unacceptable given we now know what causes cardiovascular disease, nitric oxide deficiency, we know how to diagnose it early and we have the technology to restore and replete nitric oxide in patients. Most of these patients are on multiple drug therapy and yet their chronic conditions are not resolved and, in most cases, continues to progress. It is clear that what we are doing is not working. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. It is time to think differently.
As a biochemist and physiologist with over 25 years of experience in research and drug development, based on the preponderance of published literature, I have come to realize that all chronic disease whether it is Alzheimer’s’ disease, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disease, kidney, lung, liver disease has four common characteristics:
- Reduced blood flow to the affected organ
- Systemic inflammation
- Increased oxidative stress
- Immune dysfunction
Although this is accepted as being self-evident by scientific and medical communities, there has not been any development around therapy that addresses the root cause of these chronic conditions. However nitric oxide is a molecule that can correct all four of these common characteristics of every single chronic disease. Nitric oxide is a vasodilator that improves blood flow and circulation. Nitric oxide is known to be anti-inflammatory, lower high sensitivity C-reactive protein, an acute phase marker of inflammation. Nitric oxide inhibits superoxide production from its primary sources thereby reducing oxidative stress. Nitric oxide inhibits the immune dysfunction by reducing the adherence and migration of immune cells to the blood vessel wall.
The challenge behind the development of safe and effective nitric oxide-based therapies can be explained by the physical chemistry of nitric oxide. It is a gas that when produced is gone in less than a second. However, during that second it is around, it reacts with and activates a number of second messenger systems that then activate many important biological responses. How do you deliver a bioactive gas at the right dose at the right time? For years now, nitric oxide gas therapy has been provided through inhalation. This is FDA approved for the treatment of pre-mature babies born with pulmonary hypertension. There is now a solid dose form of nitric oxide gas based on my dozens of issued patents and more than 20 years of research. There is really not a single disease where there is too much nitric oxide produced so there is no need to develop inhibitors of nitric oxide production. Rather drug therapy should be focused on ways to safely administer nitric oxide. Our drug discovery program stands out from the rest of the world. Most drugs are synthetic compounds that inhibit certain biochemical reactions. This is called pharmacology. A good example are the HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors called statins that inhibit the rate-limiting step in cholesterol production. When you inhibit a biochemical reaction, there are always side effects and unintended consequences. Restoring the production of a natural molecule is called applied physiology. The proper strategy is to give back to the body what it is missing at the right dose and at the right time. Using this approach, we are simply restoring the production of a natural molecule which should not and will not have side effects or unintended consequences since this is how the body is designed to work. Safe and effective nitric oxide drugs will be how we treat patients for the next 100 years and will change the landscape of healthcare and the management of chronic disease.
Over the past 3 years we have suddenly recognized the importance of nitric oxide in our immune system and resistance to infections. The people that were at risk for COVID-19 infection and death were those patients that were deficient in nitric oxide. Those were the elderly, people with previous heart attacks, pulmonary disease, those with high blood pressure, diabetes, African American and those with kidney disease. All of these are symptoms and diseases that manifest as a consequence of insufficient nitric oxide. This simple observation led to drug studies investigating the effects of nitric oxide as an early treatment regimen for at risk patients. After all, nitric oxide inhibits viral replication, prevents the vascular inflammation from the spike protein, improves oxygenation and prevents platelet activation thereby inhibiting clot formation. These are all the clinical issues presented in COVID patients. One drug, one molecule appears to abrogate the entire clinical picture.
The future of nitric oxide-based therapies is very promising. Many consider nitric oxide the “Holy Grail” for the treatment and prevention of chronic disease. With over 180,000 scientific publications on nitric oxide, the science is clear. We, the scientific and medical community have the information we need. Now all we need is the dissemination of the knowledge and information, well designed drug trials for nitric oxide therapies and allow nitric oxide to do its job. Nitric oxide drugs will be the “penicillin” of this century and will change the face of medicine and how we treat patients for the next 100 years.