ADT-OH, a hydrogen sulfide-releasing donor, induces apoptosis and inhibits the development of melanoma in vivo by upregulating FADD.

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is now widely considered the third endogenous gasotransmitter and plays critical roles in cancer biological processes. In this study, we demonstrate that 5-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-3H-1,2-dithiole-3-thione (ADT-OH), the most widely used moiety for synthesising slow-releasing H2S donors, induces melanoma cell death in vitro and in vivo. Consistent with previous reports, ADT-OH inhibited IκBɑ degradation, resulting in reduced NF-κB activation and subsequent downregulation of the NF-κB-targeted anti-apoptotic proteins XIAP and Bcl-2. More importantly, we found that ADT-OH suppressed the ubiquitin-induced degradation of FADD by downregulating the expression of MKRN1, an E3 ubiquitin ligase of FADD. In addition, ADT-OH had no significant therapeutic effect on FADD-knockout B16F0 cells or FADD-knockdown A375 cells. Based on these findings, we evaluated the combined effects of ADT-OH treatment and FADD overexpression on melanoma cell death in vivo using a mouse xenograft model. As expected, tumour-specific delivery of FADD through a recombinant Salmonella strain, VNP-FADD, combined with low-dose ADT-OH treatment significantly inhibited tumour growth and induced cancer cell apoptosis. Taken together, our data suggest that ADT-OH is a promising cancer therapeutic drug that warrants further investigation into its potential clinical applications.