Understanding the fragmentation mechanisms of methoxy-, mesyl-, and tosyl-lapachol derivatives by computational chemistry and mass spectrometry analysis

•Fragmentation mechanisms are proposed to lapachol derivatives.•Protonation sites and energetic profile were obtained using computational chemistry.•Combined results help understand the reactivity of derivatives in the gas-phase.

Quinone derivatives are promising anticancer, antimalarial, and antileishmanial drug candidates. Lapachol is the main natural quinonoid compound studied to date. The synthesis of lapachol (2-hydroxy-3-(3-methyl-2-butenyl)-1,4-naphthoquinone) derivatives can help characterization of these compounds in biological matrixes or extracts, particularly by electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS). The synthesized 2-methoxy-, 2-tosyl- and 2-mesyl- derivatives were protonated and fragmented by collisional-induced dissociation (CID); their fragmentation mechanisms were proposed based on CID results and DFT calculations. Quantum Theory of Atoms-in-Molecules, QTAIM, was performed and the bond weakening/reinforcement from bond critical point analysis of electronic densities was used to suggest the fragmentation pathways.Results herein were compared to data previously reported for lapachol (2-hydroxy-1,4-naphthoquinone). The tosyl derivative underwent an interesting fragmentation mechanism, which was comparable to the mechanism undergone by protonated lapachol. Therefore, identifying these compounds by the product-ions produced during ESI-MS/MS spectrometry is feasible.

Graphical abstractDownload high-res image (117KB)Download full-size image