Metabonomic analysis of the toxic effects of TM208 in rat urine by HPLC-ESI-IT-TOF/MS

4-Methylpiperazine-1-carbodithiocacid-3-cyano-3,3-diphenylpropyl ester hydrochloride (TM208) was a potential antitumor new drug with many preliminary studies in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. This study aims to determine whether TM208 elicits toxic effects by metabonomics for the first time. Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were exposured to TM208 at a single therapeutic dose (100mg/kg/d) for 5 days, metabolites of urine samples from both control and TM208-treated groups were analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization source in combination with hybrid ion trap and high-resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-IT-TOF/MS). Metabolites such as aminoadipic acid, creatine, gluconic acid, cis-aconitic acid, succinic acid and pipecolic acid which changed significantly, were identified as potential biomarkers. These results suggest that the changes in urinary metabolites of rats after exposure to TM208 were mainly related to energy metabolism and amino acid metabolism, which may be helpful to further understand the mechanism of TM208 toxicity in rats and a new drug development.

A high-sensitivity LC-MS/MS method for the determination of 4-methyl-piperazine-1-carbodithioc acid 3-cyano-3, 3-diphenylpropyl ester hydrochloride in rat plasma and its application to a pharmacokinetics study

4-Methyl-piperazine-1-carbodithioc acid 3-cyano-3, 3-diphenylpropyl ester hydrochloride (TM208), a newly synthesized anticancer compound, was quantified using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) for the first time. A simple, rapid and sensitive assay method using propranolol as internal standard (IS) after one-step precipitation with acetonitrile was developed and validated to determine TM208 in rat plasma. Separation was achieved on a reverse-phase C(18) column with a mobile phase composed of methanol-water (pH4.0) containing 5 m m ammonium acetate in gradient elution mode. A triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer with electrospray ionization source was used as detector and operated by multiple reaction monitoring in the positive ion mode. Calibration curves were linear (r > 0.99) between 0.2 and 500 ng/mL. The quantitative limit was 0.2 ng/mL; reliable precision and accuracy were validated by relative standard deviation values in the range 3.44-13.15% and relative error values between -0.58 and -9.78%. The method was successfully applied to preclinical pharmacokinetic studies of TM208.