Abstract

Hydrogen sulfide (H₂S), as one of the endogenous gasotransmitters, has shown great potential in treating cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). H₂S plays a protective role in CVDs by removing reactive oxygen species (ROS), promoting vasodilation, inhibiting myocardial hypertrophy, preventing thrombosis, and protecting mitochondria. However, there still exist some problems for H₂S as drugs such as challenging delivery, uncontrollable release rate, and other drug developability issues. Addressing these problems, the prodrug strategy shows great potential. Therefore, a key issue on the H₂S-based therapeutics is developing appropriate H2S prodrugs. In this review, we mainly discussed the mechanism of H₂S against CVDs and reviewed the cardiovascular effects of current H₂S prodrugs.

Keywords: Hydrogen sulfide (H₂S), Gasotransmitter, Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), H2S prodrug, Thrombosis, Astrocytes.

Graphical Abstract