Sodium Nitroprusside - Use in Research

Use in Research

In physiology research, sodium nitroprusside is frequently used to test endothelium-independent vasodilation. Iontophoresis, for example, allows local administration of the drug, preventing the systemic effects listed above but still inducing local microvascular vasodilation.

Sodium nitroprusside is also used in the presence of buffers as a reagent for ketone strips, which test the ketone levels in the urine of a diabetic. Colour change on the strip indicates the relative concentration of ketones.

Sodium nitroprusside is often used as a reference compound for the calibration of Mössbauer spectrometer. It is also used as an analytical reagent in qualitative organic analysis.

In combination with acetaldehyde it is also used as a colour reagent in the development of thin layer chromtography plates, particularly for N-heterocyclic compounds.

Sodium nitroprusside is also used in a urinalysis test, called the cyanide nitroprusside test, also known as Brand's test. In this test sodium cyanide is added first to urine and let stand for approximately 10 minutes. In this time disulfide bonds will be broken by the released cyanide. The destruction of disulfide bonds liberates cysteine from cystine and homocysteine from homocystine. Next sodium nitroprusside is added to the solution and it reacts with the newly freed sulfhydryl groups. The test will turn a red/purple colour if the test is positive indicating that there was significant amounts of amino acid in the urine (aminoaciduria). Cysteine, cystine, homocysteine and homocystine all react when present in the urine when this test is performed. This test can indicate inborn errors of amino acid transporters such as cystinuria, which results from pathology in the transport of dibasic amino acids.

SNP is also used in microbiology, where it has been linked with the dispersal of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms by acting as a nitric oxide donor.