Lifespan and healthspan benefits of FW1256, a novel hydrogen sulfide donor compound, in C. elegans are independent from effects downstream of eat-2 mutation

It has been suggested that hydrogen sulfide (H2S) may play a pivotal role in mediating some of these caloric restriction (CR)-associated benefits. We therefore explored whether a novel slow-releasing H2S donor compound, FW1256, mimics CR and reproduces CR-associated effects in normal feeding Caenorhabditis elegans. Using transcriptomics analysis via RNA sequencing, we determined sets of differentially expressed genes (DEG) for FW1256-exposed wild-type C. elegans and eat-2 mutants, a genetic model of CR in C. elegans, relative to unexposed wild-type C. elegans. We found that, while FW1256 affects some of the same downstream genes as eat-2 mutation, global gene expression changes are dissimilar between FW1256-exposed C. elegans and eat-2 mutants, suggesting that novel slow-releasing H2S donor compound, FW1256, does not mimic CR at the transcriptional level. Overall design: Approximately 1000 of nematodes at age of day 6 were harvested and total RNA was extracted. Extracted RNA was thereafter sent for library prep and sequencing using Illumina HiSeq4000 sequencing platform. Wild-type C. elegans were treated with 500µM of FW1256 from L1 stage larvae . There were 12 samples in total, ie: unexposed wild-type C. elegans in quadruplicate, eat-2 mutants (DA1116) in quadruplicate, wild-type C. elegans exposed to FW1256 in quadruplicate.