Prodrugs of hydrogen sulfide and related sulfur species: recent development.

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is commonly referred to as the third gasotransmitter with firmly established physiological roles. Prodrug approaches have been broadly applied to deliver H2S for various applications and mechanistic studies. Since S-persulfidation and glutathionylation are known to be important in cellular signaling by sulfur species, there have been interests in developing donors of persulfide and glutathione persulfide as well. In this review, we discuss the recent development in area of prodrugs for various sulfur species.