Abstract
The generation of key drug metabolites for the purpose of their complete structural characterization, toxicity testing, as well as to serve as standards for quantitative studies, is a critical step in the pharmaceutical discovery and development cycle. Here, we utilized electrochemistry/mass spectrometry for the detection and subsequent generation of six phase I metabolites of simvastatin and lovastatin. Both simvastatin and lovastatin are widely used for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia. There are known drug–drug interaction issues of statin therapy, and it has been suggested that the oxidative metabolites may contribute to the cholesterol-lowering effect of both statins. Of the known phase I metabolites of simvastatin and lovastatin, none are commercially available, and chemical means for the synthesis of a very few of them have been previously reported. Here, we report that electrochemical oxidation of less than 1 mg each of simvastatin and lovastatin led to the generation of three oxidative metabolites of each parent to allow complete nuclear magnetic resonance characterization of all six metabolites. The yields obtained by the electrochemical approach were also compared with incubation of parent drug with commercially available bacterial mutant CYP102A1 enzymes, and it was found that the electrochemical approach gave higher yields than the enzymatic oxidations for the generation of most of the observed oxidative metabolites in this study.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Mauro VF (1993) Clin Pharmacokinet 24:195–202
Alberts AW, Chen J, Kuron G, Hunt V, Huff J, Hoffman C, Rothrock J, Lopez M, Joshua H, Harris E, Patchett A, Monaghan R, Currie S, Stapley E, Albers-Schonberg G, Hensens O, Hirshfield J, Hoogsteen K, Liesch J, Springer J (1980) Proc Natl Acad Sci 77:3957–3961
Jekkel A, Kónya A, Ilkóy E, Boros S, Horváth G, Sütó J (1997) J Antibiot 50:750–754
Vickers S, Duncan CA, Vyas KP, Kari PH, Arison B, Prakash SR, Ramjit HG, Pitzenberger SM, Stokker G, Duggan DE (1990) Drug Metab Dispos 18:476–483
Cheng H, Schwartz MS, Vickers S, Gilbert JD, Amin RD, Depuy B, Liu L, Rogers JD, Pond SM, Duncan CA, Olah TV, Bayne WF (1994) Drug Metab Dispos 22:139–142
Vickers S, Duncan CA, Chen IW, Rosegay A, Duggan DE (1990) Drug Metab Dispos 18:138–145
Prueksaritanont T, Gorham LM, Ma B, Liu L, Yu X, Zhao JJ, Slaughter DE, Arison BH, Vyas KP (1997) Drug Metab Dispos 25:1191–1199
Vyas KP, Kari PH, Pitzenberger SM, Halpin RA, Ramjit HG, Arison B, Murphy JS, Hoffman WF, Schwartz MS, Ulm EH, Duggan DE (1990) Drug Metab Dispos 18:203–211
Greenspan MD, Yudkovitz JB, Alberts AW, Argenbright LS, Arison BH (1990) Smithson JL Drug Metab Dispos 16:678–682
Kim KH, Kang JY, Kim DH, Park SH, Kim D, Park KD, Lee YJ, Jung HC, Pan JG, Ahn T, Yun CH (2011) Drug Metab Dispos 39:140–150
Stokker G (1994) Bioorg Med Chem Lett 4:1767–1770
Baumann A, Karst U (2010) Expert Opin Drug Metab Toxicol 6:1–17
Jahn S, Karst U (2012) J Chromatogr A 1259:16–49
Jurva U, Wikström HV, Bruins AP (2000) Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom 14:529–533
Jurva U, Wikström HV, Weidolf L, Bruins AP (2003) Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom 17:800–810
Nouri-Nigjeh E, Permentier HP, Bischoff R, Bruins AP (2011) Anal Chem 83:5519–5525
Madsen KG, Grönberg G, Skonberg C, Jurva U, Hansen SH, Olsen J (2008) Chem Res Toxicol 21:2035–2041
Madsen KG, Skonberg C, Jurva U, Cornett C, Hansen SH, Johansen TN, Olsen J (2008) Chem Res Toxicol 21:1107–1119
Thevis M, Lohmann W, Schrader Y, Kohler M, Bornatsch W, Karst U, Schänzer W (2008) Eur J Mass Spectrom 14:163–170
Madsen KG, Olsen J, Skonberg C, Hansen SH, Jurva U (2007) Chem Res Toxicol 20:821–831
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge Chuck Li (Amgen Inc.) for developing the MATLAB script for recording mass-voltammograms, Chris Fotsch (Amgen Inc.) for the methodology used in this work to conduct the enzymatic incubations, Martin Eysberg, Jim Powers, and Joann Purkerson (Antec, USA) for training on the EC/MS platform as well as helpful discussions, and Nanosyn (Santa Clara, CA, USA) for performing the mass-directed metabolite purification of the dihydrodiol metabolites. We also acknowledge the Amgen Summer Internship program which made this manuscript possible.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary materials
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
ESM 1
(PDF 273 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Khera, S., Hu, N. Generation of statin drug metabolites through electrochemical and enzymatic oxidations. Anal Bioanal Chem 405, 6009–6018 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-013-7021-z
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-013-7021-z