Peroxynitrite: a biologically significant oxidant.

1. Peroxynitrite is a short-lived and damaging oxidant that forms rapidly from the reaction of superoxide with nitric oxide. 2. In 1990, Joseph Beckman proposed that peroxynitrite contributed significantly to pathological oxidative stress in living tissues, and subsequent evidence strongly supports this proposal. 3. In this review, we outline the properties of peroxynitrite and discuss how it can affect biological systems and contribute to human pathologies.