Hydropersulfides Inhibit Lipid Peroxidation and Protect Cells from Ferroptosis

Hydropersulfides (RSSH) are believed to serve important roles in vivo, including as scavengers of damaging oxidants and electrophiles. The α-effect makes RSSH not only much better nucleophiles than thiols (RSH), but also much more potent H-atom transfer agents. Since HAT is the mechanism of action of the most potent small-molecule inhibitors of phospholipid peroxidation and associated ferroptotic cell death, we have investigated their reactivity in this context. Using the fluorescence-enabled inhibited autoxidation (FENIX) approach, we have found RSSH to be highly reactive toward phospholipid-derived peroxyl radicals (kinh = 2 × 105 M–1 s–1), equaling the most potent ferroptosis inhibitors identified to date. Related (poly)sulfide products resulting from the rapid self-reaction of RSSH under physiological conditions (e.g., disulfide, trisulfide, H2S) are essentially unreactive, but combinations from which RSSH can be produced in situ (i.e., polysulfides with H2S or thiols with H2S2) are effective. In situ generation of RSSH from designed precursors which release RSSH via intramolecular substitution or hydrolysis improve the radical-trapping efficiency of RSSH by minimizing deleterious self-reactions. A brief survey of structure–reactivity relationships enabled the design of new precursors that are more efficient. The reactivity of RSSH and their precursors translates from (phospho)lipid bilayers to cell culture (mouse embryonic fibroblasts), where they were found to inhibit ferroptosis induced by inactivation of glutathione peroxidase-4 (GPX4) or deletion of the gene encoding it. These results suggest that RSSH and the pathways responsible for their biosynthesis may act as a ferroptosis suppression system alongside the recently discovered FSP1/ubiquinone and GCH1/BH4/DHFR systems.