New metabolite profiles of Danshensu in rats by ultraperformance liquid chromatography/quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry

• 4, 5, 4, and 4 metabolites of DSS were found in rat feces, urine, blood, and bile.
• U-HPLC/Q-TOF-MS was used for this analysis.
• DSS was metabolized via dehydrogenation, deoxygenation, methylation, glucuronidation, and sulfation pathways.

In our research, ultraperformance liquid chromatography/quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (U-HPLC/Q-TOF-MS) was established for analyzing the metabolite profiles of Danshensu (DSS) in rat feces, bile, urine, plasma and the possible metabolic pathways were subsequently proposed after the oral dose of 80 mg/kg; rat biological samples were collected and pretreated by protein precipitation. Then, the samples were injected into an Acquity ultraperformance liquid chromatography BEHC column with mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile (solvent A)–0.1% formic acid-water (solvent B) with a linear gradient elution program. Totally, 17 metabolites of DSS were identified, including 4, 5, 4 and 4 metabolites in the feces, urine, blood, and bile samples respectively. Most of them were to our knowledge reported for the first time. The results indicated that DSS was metabolized via dehydrogenation, deoxygenation, methylation, glucuronidation, and sulfation pathways in vivo. Among these, methylation was considered as the main physiologic processes of it. This study revealed that U-HPLC/Q-TOF-MS was more accurate and sensitive to detect and identify the possible metabolites and to better understand the metabolism of DSS in vivo.