In vitro biotransformation of pyrrolizidine alkaloids in different species: part II—identification and quantitative assessment of the metabolite profile of six structurally different pyrrolizidine alkaloids

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PA) exert their toxic effects only after bioactivation. Although their toxicity has already been studied and metabolic pathways including important metabolites were described, the quantification of the latter revealed a large unknown portion of the metabolized PA. In this study, the qualitative and quantitative metabolite profiles of structurally different PAs in rat and human liver microsomes were investigated. Between five metabolites for europine and up to 48 metabolites for lasiocarpine were detected. Proposals for the chemical structure of each metabolite were derived based on fragmentation patterns using high-resolution mass spectrometry. The metabolite profiles of the diester PAs showed a relatively good agreement between both species. The metabolic reactions were summarized into three groups: dehydrogenation, oxygenation, and shortening of necic acid(s). While dehydrogenation of the necine base is considered as bioactivation, both other routes are considered as detoxification steps. The most abundant changes found for open chained diesters were dealkylations, while the major metabolic pathway for cyclic diesters was oxygenation especially at the nitrogen atom. In addition, all diester PAs formed several dehydrogenation products, via the insertion of a second double bond in the necine base, including the formation of glutathione conjugates. In rat liver microsomes, all investigated PAs formed dehydropyrrolizidine metabolites with the highest amount formed by lasiocarpine, whereas in human liver microsomes, these metabolites could only be detected for diesters. Our findings demonstrate that an extensive analysis of PA metabolism can provide the basis for a better understanding of PA toxicity and support future risk assessment. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s00204-020-02853-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.