Metabolism of cyadox by the intestinal mucosa microsomes and gut flora of swine, and identification of metabolites by high-performance liquid chromatography combined with ion trap/time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

Cyadox (CYX), 2-formylquinoxaline-1,4-dioxide cyanoacetylhydrazone, is an antimicrobial and growth-promoting feed additive for food-producing animals. To reveal biotransformation of CYX in swine intestine, CYX was incubated with swine intestinal microsomes and mucosa in the presence of an NADPH-generating system and swine ileal flora and colonic flora, respectively. The metabolites of CYX were identified using high-performance liquid chromatography combined with ion trap/time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC/MS-ITTOF). Structural elucidation of the metabolites was precisely performed by comparing their changes in molecular mass, full scan MS/MS spectra and accurate mass measurements with those of the parent drug. Finally, seven metabolites were identified as follows: three reduced metabolites (cyadox 1-monoxide (Cy1), cyadox 4-monoxide (Cy2) and bisdesoxycyadox (Cy4)); hydroxylation metabolite (3-hydroxylcyadox 1-monoxide (Cy3)); hydrolysis metabolite of the amide bond (N-decyanoacetyl cyadox (Cy5)); a hydrogenation metabolite (11,12-dihydro-bisdesoxycyadox (Cy6)) and a side-chain cleavage metabolite (2-hydromethylquinoxaline (Cy7)). Only one metabolite (Cy1) was found in intestinal microsomes. Cy1, Cy2 and Cy4 were detected in intestinal mucosa, ileal and colonic flora. In addition, Cy3 and Cy5 were only obtained from ileal flora, and Cy6 and Cy7 alone were observed in colonic bacteria. The results indicated that N→O group reduction was the main metabolic pathway of CYX metabolism in swine ileal flora, intestinal microsomes and mucosa. New metabolic profiles of hydrogenation and cleavage on the side chain were found in colonic bacteria. Among the identified metabolites, two new metabolites (Cy6, Cy7) were detected for the first time. These studies will contribute to clarify comprehensively the metabolism of CYX in animals, and provide evidence to explain the pharmacology and toxicology effects of CYX in animals.