University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Associate Professor Mark Schoenfisch and colleagues have created nanoscale scaffolds made of silica and nitric oxide -- a molecule in mammals that plays a role in regulating blood pressure, neurotransmission and fighting bacterial infections, among other functions.

"There was evidence that nitric oxide kills bacteria but the difficult part involved storing it in a manner such that it could be delivered to bacterial cells," said doctoral student Evan Hetrick, lead author of the research.

While the body constantly produces nitric oxide, often not enough is produced to effectively fight bacterial infection.

"With silica scaffolds, nitric oxide stores easily and we could very carefully control the release," said Schoenfisch.

The research is published in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Nano.