7-Nitroindazole is a non-selective inhibitor of NOS isoforms in vitro for neuronal nitric oxide synthase showing a 10-fold selectivity for neuronal NOS.

在大鼠多次给予可卡因的实验模型中，选择性nNOS抑制剂7-nitroindazole不仅减轻了可卡因戒断所诱发的行为变化，同时展现出抗氧化和神经保护的作用。7-NI的神经保护效应可能机制涉及其对nNOS的抑制作用及其直接清除自由基的特性。7-NI在恢复可卡因多次给予所损害的大脑抗氧化细胞防御以及减轻由可卡因引起的身体依赖方面的有益效果，再次证实了氧化应激在成瘾发展中的作用。

Animals were divided into four groups (n = 12) as follows:group 1: control animals, treated with saline for 7 days, which were involved in the experiment from the very beginning and housed under the same standard laboratory conditions as the treated animals;group 2: animals, receiving 15 mg/kg?1 i.p. of cocaine for 7 days;group 3: animals, receiving 25 mg/kg?1 i.p. 7-NI for 7 days ;group 4: animals, treated with 7-NI (25 mg/kg?1 i.p.) and 30 min later with cocaine (15 mg/kg?1) for 7 days.Twenty-four hours after the last administration of the compounds the animals were observed for behavioral changes related to the withdrawal syndrome.?Then the animals were sacrificed through decapitation and brains were extracted.?Brains of six animals from each group were taken for isolation of synaptosomes and brains from the other six animals of each group were used for measurement of nNOS and antioxidant enzymes[1].