<div>Although sulfur dioxide (SO<sub>2</sub>) finds widespread use in the food industry as its hydrated form, sulfite, a number of aspects of SO<sub>2 </sub>biology remain to be completely understood. Among the tools available for intracellular enhancement of SO<sub>2</sub>, most suffer from poor cell permeability and a lack of control over SO<sub>2</sub> release. We report 1,2-cyclic sulfite diesters as a new class of reliable SO<sub>2 </sub>donors that dissociate in buffer through a nucleophilic displacement to produce SO<sub>2 </sub>with tuneable release profiles. We provide data in support of the suitability of these SO<sub>2 </sub>donors to enhance intracellular levels of SO<sub>2 </sub>at an efficiency superior to sodium bisulfite, the most commonly used SO<sub>2</sub> donor for cellular studies.</div>
Synthesis and Evaluation of Cyclic Sulfite Diesters as Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) Donors
