Testing for fluoxymesterone (Halotestin) administration to man: identification of urinary metabolites by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

Fluoxymesterone, an anabolic steroid, is metabolized in man primarily by 6 beta-hydroxylation, 4-ene-reduction, 3-keto-reduction, and 11-hydroxy-oxidation. These pathways of metabolism are suggested by the positive identification of 4 metabolites and the tentative identification of 3 other metabolites. Detection of the drug in urine is possible for at least 5 days after a single 10 mg oral dose to previously untreated adult males, by monitoring the presence of 2 metabolites, since the parent drug is not detectable more than 1 day after the dose.

A comparative in vitro metabolic study of methaphenilene and pyribenzamine.

1. In vitro metabolism of methaphenilene (MFN) and pyribenzamine (PBZ) was compared to that of methapyriline (MPH) in rat, because chronic treatment with MPH causes cancer in rats, whereas MFN and PBZ cause no cancer. 2. G.l.c. and mass spectrometry were used to identify 7 metabolites of MFN and 6 of PBZ in extracts of rat liver microsome incubations. 3. Quantification of the metabolic pathways revealed that N-oxide formation is considerably more important for both MFN and PBZ than for MPH, and only MPH forms an amide as a metabolic product. 4. Quantitative balance studies show that a lower recovery is apparent for metabolic experiments with MPH than for either MFN or PBZ under all conditions examined, indicating that significant metabolic pathways for MPH exist which are not being measured under these conditions.

The in vivo metabolism of methapyrilene, a hepatocarcinogen, in the rat.

1. The metabolism of methapyrilene (I), was examined in vivo by g.l.c. and g.l.c.-mass spectrometric analysis of rat urinary extracts. 2. Dosing the animals with tetradeuterium-labelled I helped identify 7 different metabolites of I in the urine, including (5-hydroxylpyridyl)-methapyrilene, which was identified by comparison with a synthetic reference standard. 3. After 4 weeks of treatment with I, rats also excrete detectable amounts of the 3- and (6-hydroxylpyridyl)-methapyrilene metabolites suggesting that pretreatment with I alters the metabolism of the pyridine ring. 4. Metabolic removal of the 2-thienylmethylene moiety is also facile, as large amounts of N'-(2-pyridyl)-N,N-dimethylethylenediamine and its metabolite N'-[2(5-hydroxylpyridyl)]-N,N-dimethylethylenediamine are excreted under all dosing regimens. 5. Urinary concn of both I and metabolites decline with time, despite continuous dosing, indicating a change in absorption, metabolism, and/or excretion of I on repeated dosing.

Cytochrome P-450 dependent binding of methapyrilene to DNA in vitro.

Methapyrilene ([14C]MPH) was found to bind to calf thymus DNA only after activation by both rat liver microsomes and NADPH. The cytochrome P-450 inhibitors 2,4-dichloro-6-phenylphenoxyethylamine, 2-diethylaminoethyl-2,2-diphenylvalerate and metyrapone inhibited binding, but methimazole, a flavin-dependent monooxygenase inhibitor, had no effect. However, 1,2-epoxy-3,3,3-trichloropropane, an epoxide hydrolase inhibitor, decreased binding by 30%. Pre-treatment of rats with isosafrole, pregnenolone-16 alpha-carbonitrile or phenobarbital had little or no effect on binding while 3-methylcholanthrene pretreatment decreased binding by 37%. Incubations in the presence of either N-acetylcysteine, glutathione, catalase or glutathione-peroxidase decreased binding to DNA while superoxide dismutase had no effect. These data suggest that MPH is metabolically activated to a species which binds to DNA and that this activation may be mediated by cytochrome P-450 isozymes.

The effect of chronic methapyrilene treatment on methapyrilene metabolism in vitro.

Rats were fed 100 or 1000 p.p.m. methapyrilene (MPH) in their diet for 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 weeks. Liver microsomes were prepared from both control and treated rats. After incubation with 1 mM MPH, eight metabolites were detected and six were quantitated. Five of the metabolites have been previously identified as 2-hydroxymethyl-thiophene (ThM), thiophene-2-carboxylic acid (ThCA), N-(2-thienylmethyl)-2-aminopyridine (TMAP), N-2-pyridyl-N',N'-dimethylethylenediamine (PMED), and 2-aminopyridine (AP). Three other metabolites have been tentatively identified based on their mass spectral fragmentation patterns as normethapyrilene (N-MPH), (5-hydroxypyridyl)methapyrilene (HP-MPH), and methapyrileneamide (MPH-A). The same metabolites were found in both control and treated animals, the most abundant being N-MPH and PMED. Pretreatment with MPH resulted in inhibition of both consumption of MPH and formation of some metabolites. However increases in the formation of all of the metabolites also occurred under different treatment conditions. In both control and treated tissue, the preliminary mass balance was less than 55%, except in incubations with tissue from rats treated with 1000 p.p.m. for 8 or 16 weeks where it was 92 and 89%, respectively. Dramatic increases in the fraction of TMAP, MPH-A, N-MPH, and HP-MPH relative to MPH consumed account for the increase in the mass balance after 8 weeks pretreatment with 1000 p.p.m. MPH, and increases in the amounts of PMED, HP-MPH and ThCA account for the higher mass balance after 16 weeks. The toxicological consequences of these complex metabolic changes may be important in the induction of cancer by MPH.

A gas-liquid chromatography assay for phencyclidine and its metabolites.

A GLC assay for phencyclidine (PCP) is described, which also simultaneously measures three primary hydroxylated metabolites formed from incubating PCP in tissue homogenates. Using the FID detector, the limits of reliable detection of PCP and both monohydroxy metabolites, 4-phenyl-4-piperidino-cyclohexanol, 2, and 1-(1-phenylcyclohexyl)-4-hydroxypiperidine, 3, are 0.02 mumol per injection and 0.05 mumol for the dihydroxy metabolite, 4-(4'-hydroxypiperidino)-4-phenylcyclohexanol, 2A. Baseline separation of an compounds was achieved and coefficients of variation (between-run) was 3-6% for PCP, and both monohydroxy metabolites, and 12% for the dihydroxy metabolite. A GCMS assay is also reported herein for the analysis of PCP at low levels, and can detect 5 pmol per injection of PCP, with a linear standard curve from 50 to 2000 pmol.