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High pressure liquid chromatography was used in combination with mass spectrometry to confirm that the main products of in vitrometabolism of 1-(4-acetylphenyl)-3,3-dimethyltriazene are 1-(4-acetylphenyl-3-methyltriazene and 4-aminoacetophenone. In addition a novel metabolite, 1-[4-(1-hydroxyethyl)-phenyl]-3,3-dimethyltriazene, possessing antitumour activity similar to the parent drug, was identified.

Reaction of alkane-1,ω-diamines with 6-chloro-1,3-dimethylpyrimidine-2,4-dione under carefully controlled conditions gives 6-(ω-aminoalkylamino)-1,3-dimethylpyrimidine-2,4-diones, which can be readily separated from traces of products of disubstitution after benzyloxycarbonyl protection. A sequence of nitrosation at the pyrimidine 5-position, thermal cyclization, and deprotection affords 8-(ω-aminoalkyl) derivatives of theophylline, an important drug in the treatment of asthma and related diseases. These 8-(ω-aminoalkyl)theophyllines can be coupled to fluorescein-5-isothiocyanate and to dansyl chloride, giving fluorescent derivatives of theophylline with applications in automated immunoassay of the drug in biofluids using the fluorescence capillary fill device.

S-(N-Methylcarbamoyl)glutathione has been identified by cesium ion liquid secondary ion mass spectrometry as a biliary metabolite in mice of the experimental antitumor agent and hepatotoxin N-methylformamide. Metabolism of N-methylformamide to urinary methylamine, urinary N-acetyl-S-(N-methylcarbamoyl)-cysteine and biliary S-(N-methylcarbamoyl)glutathione was found to be subject to large intermolecular primary kinetic isotope effects when hydrogen was replaced by deuterium in the formyl group (kH/kD = 5.5 +/- 0.2, 4.5 +/- 1.0 and 7 +/- 2, respectively), as shown by mass spectrometry of derivatives of these metabolites. These values indicate the existence of a common metabolic precursor for each of these metabolites. In particular, methylamine is shown not to arise from simple enzymatic hydrolysis of N-methylformamide but is associated with an oxidative process. Therefore, it is highly likely that N-methylformamide is oxidized and conjugated to form S-(N-methylcarbamoyl)glutathione which is metabolized further to N-acetyl-S-(N-methylcarbamoyl) cysteine. Either of these thiocarbamates could be hydrolyzed to give the parent thiol and the observed metabolic end products, methylamine and carbon dioxide. The presence of deuterium in the formyl moiety of N-methylformamide reduced markedly the hepatotoxicity of the compound, as shown by measurements of the activities of appropriate hepatic enzymes in plasma.

The hepatotoxicity and metabolism of the following close analogs of the hepatotoxic antitumor agent N-methylformamide (NMF) were investigated in CBA/CA mice: N-ethylformamide (NEF), dimethylformamide (DMF), formamide and N-methylacetamide (NMA). Apart from NMF only NEF was potently hepatotoxic as measured by the elevation of plasma activities of the enzymes sorbitol dehydrogenase and alanine and aspartate aminotransferases 24 hr after drug administration. In freeze-dried urine samples of mice which had received NEF or NMF, but not in the case of DMF, formamide or NMA, thioesters were detected by thin-layer chromatography. Evidence based on high-pressure liquid chromatography analysis and 400 MHz 1H-NMR and mass spectrometry suggests that the thioester metabolite of NEF is S-(N-ethylcarbamoyl)-N-acetylcysteine. It has been shown previously that NMF is metabolized to S-(N-methylcarbamoyl)-N-acetylcysteine. NEF also underwent extensive metabolism to ethylamine; similarly NMF was biotransformed to methylamine. In contrast, the urine of mice which had received DMF contained only very small amounts of dimethylamine and methylamine could not be detected as a metabolite of NMA. Instead, the major metabolite of NMA was identified by 400 MHz 1H-NMR spectrometry as N-(hydroxymethyl)acetamide. DMF is known to undergo extensive metabolism to its N-hydroxymethyl derivative. The results suggest that two metabolic pathways of N-alkylformamides can be distinguished: Hydroxylation at the alpha-carbon of the N-alkyl group and oxidation of the formyl moiety. The former pathway presumably constitutes a detoxification route, and the latter may well be associated with hepatotoxicity, and affords a glutathione conjugate, excreted in the urine as a mercapturate.