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Xenobiotica
the fate of foreign compounds in biological systems
Volume 49, 2019 - Issue 5
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Animal Pharmacokinetics and Metabolism

Characterization of in vitro and in vivo metabolism of leelamine using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

, , , & ORCID Icon
Pages 577-583 | Received 27 Mar 2018, Accepted 22 May 2018, Published online: 12 Jun 2018
 

Abstract

  1. Leelamine is a diterpene compound found in the bark of pine trees and has garnered considerable interest owing to its potent anticancer properties. The aim of the present study was to investigate the metabolic profile of leelamine in human liver microsomes (HLMs) and mice using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS).

  2. We found that leelamine undergoes only Phase I metabolism, which generates one metabolite that is mono-hydroxylated at the C9 carbon of the octahydrophenanthrene ring (M1) both in vitro and in vivo. The structure and metabolic pathway of M1 were determined from the MSn fragmentation obtained by collision-induced dissociation using LC-MS/MS in HLMs.

  3. Cytochrome p450 (CYP) 2D6 was found to be the dominant CYP enzyme involved in the biotransformation of leelamine to its hydroxylated metabolite, whereas CYP2C19, CYP1A1, and CYP3A4 contributed to some extent.

  4. Moreover, we identified only one metabolite M1, in the urine, but none in the feces. In conclusion, leelamine was metabolized to a mono-hydroxyl metabolite by CYP2D6 and mainly excreted in the urine.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government [NRF-2017R1A1A1A05001129].

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