Therapeutic Delivery of H₂S via COS: Small Molecule and Polymeric Donors with Benign Byproducts

Carbonyl sulfide (COS) is a gas that may play important roles in mammalian and bacterial biology, but its study is limited by a lack of suitable donor molecules. We report here the use of N-thiocarboxyanhydrides (NTAs) as COS donors that release the gas in a sustained manner under biologically relevant conditions with innocuous peptide byproducts. Carbonic anhydrase converts COS into H₂S, allowing NTAs to serve as either COS or H₂S donors, depending on the availability of the enzyme. Analysis of the pseudo-first-order H₂S release rate under biologically relevant conditions revealed a release half-life of 75 min for the small molecule NTA under investigation. A polynorbornene bearing pendant NTAs made by ring-opening metathesis polymerization was also synthesized to generate a polymeric COS/H₂S donor. A half-life of 280 min was measured for the polymeric donor. Endothelial cell proliferation studies revealed an enhanced rate of proliferation for cells treated with the NTA over untreated controls.