Research progress of the association of hydrogen sulfide with colorectal cancer and its associated anti-tumor drugs

Abstract

As the third confirmed gaseous transmitters, hydrogen sulfide was found to play a vital role in the eternal milieu both physiologically and pathologically. What's intriguing is that, there exists a debate about the role of hydrogen sulfide in the pathogenesis of cancer, especially colorectal cancer. In this manuscript, progress of the effect of low and high dose hydrogen sulfide on the tumorigenesis of colorectal cancer and research on the antitumor new drugs stemmed from the function of hydrogen sulfide is summarized. Recently, the "bell-shape" model of the action of hydrogen sulfide illustrated that hydrogen sulfide was able to promote the progression of tumor in low dose and inhibit the progression of tumor in high dose. Based on these results, both hydrogen sulfide synthesis inhibitors and hydrogen sulfide donors(chimeras with NSAIDs) have been widely studied as potential anti-tumor novel drugs. According to the actual results of present studies, hydrogen sulfide synthesis inhibitors featured by aminooxyacetic acid (AOA) is more promising as a novel kind of drug. The future research based on the relationship between hydrogen sulfide and rectal cancer may bring insights into the development of novel anti-tumor drugs, thus producing tremendous potential clinical value.