Isolation and characterization of a β-glucuronide of hydroxylated SARM S1 produced using a combination of biotransformation and chemical oxidation

• A drug glucuronide was produced using new concept with a fungal in vitro model.
• The glucuronide of SARM S-1 was isolated with preparative LC.
• The absolute structure including stereochemistry was determined with NMR.
• The purified glucuronide can be used as analytical reference material.

In this study, using mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, it has been confirmed that biotransformation with the fungus Cunninghamella elegans combined with chemical oxidation with the free radical tetramethylpiperidinyl-1-oxy (TEMPO) can produce drug glucuronides of β-configuration. Glucuronic acid conjugates are a common type of metabolites formed by the human body. The detection of such conjugates in doping control and other kinds of forensic analysis would be beneficial owing to a decrease in analysis time as hydrolysis can be omitted. However the commercial availability of reference standards for drug glucuronides is poor. The selective androgen receptor modulator (SARM) SARM S1 was incubated with the fungus C. elegans. The sample was treated with the free radical TEMPO oxidizing agent and was thereafter purified by SPE. A glucuronic acid conjugate was isolated using a fraction collector connected to an ultra high performance liquid chromatographic (UHPLC) system. The isolated compound was characterized by NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry and its structure was confirmed as a glucuronic acid β-conjugate of hydroxylated SARM S1 bearing the glucuronide moiety on carbon C-10.

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