Mycotoxins can be found worldwide in foods and feed and cause a variety of mold-related health risks which makes it necessary to further examine their toxic effects and metabolic fate in human and other mammals. Beside standard in vitro and in vivo assays with liver cell preparations or rodents an increasing interest in new simulation methods are playing a growing role. Electrochemistry (EC) is one of these novel techniques and has been used successfully and efficiently in pharmacological and drug research for several years now.
The primary objective of this study was to determine the capability of EC as a supportive and versatile instrument to elucidate metabolic pathways of mycotoxins.
On the example of the food relevant mycotoxin Citrinin a coulometric flow through cell equipped with a carbon working electrode was used to oxidize Citrinin by applying potential between 0.7 and 2.5 V vs. Pd/H2. The electrochemically generated oxidation products were then analyzed by mass-spectrometric detection coupled online to EC (EC-MS) and compared with data from a standard in vitro model with human and rat liver microsomes preparations. To receive a comprehensive assessment of oxidative techniques chemical oxidation by Fenton´s reaction was performed as well.
The obtained LC-MS/MS data confirmed the production of Dihydrocitrinone by all of the three tested oxidation systems and demonstrates the potential of EC-MS for the successful prediction of the main phase I metabolic reactions of mycotoxins, since Dihydrocitrinone is the mainly formed metabolite by humans after intake of Citrinin.
Beside the identified Dihydrocitrinone from electrochemical, enzymatic and chemical oxidation of Citrinin there is still a number of yet unknown compounds. As the next step structural characterization of the generated oxidation products by NMR and X-ray analysis will be enabled by their large-scale production using preparative EC cells.
Mycotoxins occur widely in foodstuffs and cause a variety of mold-related health risks to humans and animals. Elucidation of the metabolic fate of mycotoxins and the growing number of newly discovered mycotoxins have enhanced the demand for fast and reliable simulation methods. The viability of electrochemistry coupled with mass spectrometry (EC/ESI-MS), Fenton-like oxidation, and UV irradiation for the simulation of oxidative phase I metabolism of the mycotoxins citrinin (CIT) and dihydroergocristine (DHEC) was investigated. The specific reaction products are compared with metabolites produced by human and rat liver microsomes in vitro. Depending on the applied potential between 0 and 2000 mV vs. Pd/H-2 by using a flow-through cell, CIT and DHEC are oxidized to various products. Besides dehydrogenation and dealkylation reactions, several hydroxylated DHEC and CIT species are produced by EC and Fenton-like reaction, separated and analyzed by LC-MS/MS and ESI-HRMS. Compared to reaction products from performed microsomal incubations, several mono- and dihydroxylated DHEC species were found to be similar to the reaction products of EC, Fenton-like reaction, and UV-induced oxidation. Consequentially, nonmicrosomal efficient and economic simulation techniques can be useful in early-stage metabolic studies, even if one-to-one simulation is not always feasible.
Mycotoxins cause a variety of mold-related health risks which makes it necessary to further examine their metabolic pathways in human and other mammals. Beside standard in vitro assays with liver cell microsomes an increasing interest in new and rapid simulation techniques are playing a growing role in mycotoxin research.
Herein, the coupling of electrochemistry with liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry (EC/LC/MS) is presented as fast and simple method to investigate the oxidative fate of mycotoxins. For this case study, two food relevant mycotoxins (zearalenone and citrinin) were selected. Experiments were performed by using an electrochemical flow through cell integrated in the flow path of the autosampler of the chromatographic system. The reaction mixture was separated by a RP-C18 column and analyzed by a single quadrupole MS (Figure 1). Oxidation products were generated by applying potentials of 400, 800, 1200 and 1600 mV vs Pd/H2 using a glassy carbon working electrode. Different oxidation reactions like hydroxylation, dehydrogenation and dimerization lead to a diverse product pattern of the investigated mycotoxins.
In a comparative study, electrochemical generated reaction products were compared with metabolites produced by human and rat liver microsomes in vitro. The obtained data show that EC/LC/MS is a versatile and promising tool in mycotoxin research to support metabolic investigations of known and unknown mycotoxins.