Hydrogen Sulfide in Pharmacotherapy, Beyond the Hydrogen Sulfide-Donors

Abstract

Hydrogen sulfide (H ₂S) is one of the important biological mediators involved in physiological and pathological processes in mammals. Recently developed H ₂S donors show promising effects against several pathological processes in preclinical and early clinical studies. For example, H ₂S donors have been found to be effective in the prevention of gastrointestinal ulcers during anti-inflammatory treatment. Notably, there are well-established medicines used for the treatment of a variety of diseases, whose chemical structure contains sulfur moieties and may release H ₂S. Hence, the therapeutic effect of these drugs may be partly the result of the release of H ₂S occurring during drug metabolism and/or the effect of these drugs on the production of endogenous hydrogen sulfide. In this work, we review data regarding sulfur drugs commonly used in clinical practice that can support the hypothesis about H ₂S-dependent pharmacotherapeutic effects of these drugs.