Electrochemical simulation of biotransformation reactions of citrinin and dihydroergocristine compared to UV irradiation and Fenton-like reaction.

Mycotoxins occur widely in foodstuffs and cause a variety of mold-related health risks to humans and animals. Elucidation of the metabolic fate of mycotoxins and the growing number of newly discovered mycotoxins have enhanced the demand for fast and reliable simulation methods. The viability of electrochemistry coupled with mass spectrometry (EC/ESI-MS), Fenton-like oxidation, and UV irradiation for the simulation of oxidative phase I metabolism of the mycotoxins citrinin (CIT) and dihydroergocristine (DHEC) was investigated. The specific reaction products are compared with metabolites produced by human and rat liver microsomes in vitro. Depending on the applied potential between 0 and 2000 mV vs. Pd/H ₂ by using a flow-through cell, CIT and DHEC are oxidized to various products. Besides dehydrogenation and dealkylation reactions, several hydroxylated DHEC and CIT species are produced by EC and Fenton-like reaction, separated and analyzed by LC-MS/MS and ESI-HRMS. Compared to reaction products from performed microsomal incubations, several mono- and dihydroxylated DHEC species were found to be similar to the reaction products of EC, Fenton-like reaction, and UV-induced oxidation. Consequentially, nonmicrosomal efficient and economic simulation techniques can be useful in early-stage metabolic studies, even if one-to-one simulation is not always feasible.