Multiwell photocatalytic microreactor device integrating drug biotransformation modeling and sample preparation on a MALDI target

Gorbunov, Alexander, et al. “Multiwell photocatalytic microreactor device integrating drug biotransformation modeling and sample preparation on a MALDI target.” Microchemical Journal 178 (2022): 107362. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.microc.2022.107362

Abstract

Metabolic conversion of drugs to chemically reactive products, known as bioactivation, is considered to underlie the adverse drug reactions such as idiosyncratic hepatotoxicity. As bioactivation of most drugs involves phase I oxidation, UV-induced TiO2 photocatalytic oxidation (UV/TiO2-PCO) can be used as a fast, simple and inexpensive non-enzymatic method of oxidative metabolism simulation allowing for rapid preliminary screening of candidate drugs for reactive metabolite formation. We developed and evaluated a novel prototype 96-well on-target UV/TiO2-photocatalytic microreactor setup (PCμR96) that integrates drug metabolism simulation and sample preparation directly on a MALDI target. PCμR96 allows to sequentially perform UV/TiO2-PCO of xenobiotics, GSH or protein adduct formation, protein digestion and sample concentration, followed by surface- or matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (SALDI/MALDI) mass spectrometry (MS). Amodiaquine (AQ), a well-studied antimalarial drug that is known to undergo oxidative biotransformation, was selected as a model compound. Oxidation products of AQ and their protein adducts were obtained using PCμR96 and identified by SALDI and MALDI MS/MS analysis. The achieved AQ oxidation products were in good agreement with the known AQ metabolites produced in biological systems. Two of the products were proved to be reactive towards cysteyl thiols of human globin.