New Analytical Framework for Verification of Biomarkers of Exposure to Chemicals Combining Human Biomonitoring and Water Fingerprinting

Molecular epidemiology approaches in human biomonitoring are powerful tools that allow for verification of public exposure to chemical substances. Unfortunately, due to logistical difficulties and high cost, they tend to evaluate small study groups and as a result might not provide comprehensive large scale community-wide exposure data. Urban water fingerprinting provides a timely alternative to traditional approaches. It can revolutionize the human exposure studies as urban water represents collective community-wide exposure. Knowledge of characteristic biomarkers of exposure to specific chemicals is key to the successful application of water fingerprinting. This study aims to introduce a novel conceptual analytical framework for identification of biomarkers of public exposure to chemicals via combined human metabolism and urban water fingerprinting assay. This framework consists of the following steps: (1) in vitro HLM/S9 assay, (2) in vivo pooled urine assay, (3) in vivo wastewater fingerprinting assay, (4) analysis with HR-MSMS, (5) data processing, and (6) selection of biomarkers. The framework was applied and validated for PCMC (4-chloro-<i>m</i>-cresol), household derived antimicrobial agent with no known exposure and human metabolism data. Four new metabolites of PCMC (hydroxylated, sulfated/hydroxylated, sulfated PCMC, and glucuronidated PCMC) were identified using the in vitro HLM/S9 assay. But only one metabolite, sulfated PCMC, was confirmed in wastewater and in urine. Therefore, our study confirms that water fingerprinting is a promising tool for biomarker selection and that in vitro HLM/S9 studies alone, although informative, do not provide high accuracy results. Our work also confirms, for the first time, human internal exposure to PCMC

Measuring biomarkers in wastewater as a new source of epidemiological information:Current state and future perspectives

The information obtained from the chemical analysis of specific human excretion products (biomarkers) in urban wastewater can be used to estimate the exposure or consumption of the population under investigation to a defined substance. A proper biomarker can provide relevant information about lifestyle habits, health and wellbeing, but its selection is not an easy task as it should fulfil several specific requirements in order to be successfully employed. This paper aims to summarize the current knowledge related to the most relevant biomarkers used so far. In addition, some potential wastewater biomarkers that could be used for future applications were evaluated. For this purpose, representative chemical classes have been chosen and grouped in four main categories: (i) those that provide estimates of lifestyle factors and substance use, (ii) those used to estimate the exposure to toxicants present in the environment and food, (iii) those that have the potential to provide information about public health and illness and (iv) those used to estimate the population size. To facilitate the evaluation of the eligibility of a compound as a biomarker, information, when available, on stability in urine and wastewater and pharmacokinetic data (i.e. metabolism and urinary excretion profile) has been reviewed. Finally, several needs and recommendations for future research are proposed.</p

Measuring biomarkers in wastewater as a new source of epidemiological information:Current state and future perspectives

The information obtained from the chemical analysis of specific human excretion products (biomarkers) in urban wastewater can be used to estimate the exposure or consumption of the population under investigation to a defined substance. A proper biomarker can provide relevant information about lifestyle habits, health and wellbeing, but its selection is not an easy task as it should fulfil several specific requirements in order to be successfully employed. This paper aims to summarize the current knowledge related to the most relevant biomarkers used so far. In addition, some potential wastewater biomarkers that could be used for future applications were evaluated. For this purpose, representative chemical classes have been chosen and grouped in four main categories: (i) those that provide estimates of lifestyle factors and substance use, (ii) those used to estimate the exposure to toxicants present in the environment and food, (iii) those that have the potential to provide information about public health and illness and (iv) those used to estimate the population size. To facilitate the evaluation of the eligibility of a compound as a biomarker, information, when available, on stability in urine and wastewater and pharmacokinetic data (i.e. metabolism and urinary excretion profile) has been reviewed. Finally, several needs and recommendations for future research are proposed.This work was supported by the COST Action ES1307 “SCORE – Sewage biomarker analysis for community health assessment”. Emma Gracia-Lor is very grateful to Generalitat Valenciana, Conselleria d'Educació, Investigació, Cultura i Esport (APOSTD/2015, Programa VALi + d) for her post-doctoral contract. Lubertus Bijlsma acknowledges NPS-Euronet (HOME/2014/JDRUG/AG/DRUG/7086), co-funded by the European Union, for his post-doctoral fellowship. Erika Castrignanò, Richard Bade, Juliet Kinyua, Pedram Ramin, Nikolaos I. Rousis, Yeonsuk Ryu would like to thank the SEWPROF MC ITN project, ‘A new paradigm in drug use and human health risk assessment: Sewage profiling at the community level’ [grant agreement 317205] supported by the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration for the financial support. Iria González-Mariño extends her gratitude to the Galician Council of Culture, Education and Universities for her postdoctoral contract (Plan Galego de Investigación, Innovación e Crecemento 2011–2015). Foon Yin Lai acknowledges her postdoctoral fellowship from the University of Antwerp. Luigi Lopardo, Axel Rydevik and Barbara Kasprzyk-Hordern would like to acknowledge Leverhulme Trust for funding ‘TOX-EDC, Wastewater profiling for community-wide human exposure assessment from environmental endocrine disrupting chemicals in personal care and consumer products’ (Project No: RPG-2013-297). Frederic Been would like to thank the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF, P2LAP2_164892) for his post-doctoral grant. This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein

Drug Metabolites Formed by Cunninghamella Fungi : Mass Spectrometric Characterization and Production for use in Doping Control

This thesis describes the in vitro production of drug metabolites using fungi of the Cunninghamella species. The metabolites were characterized with mainly liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry using ion-trap and quadrupole-time-of-flight instruments. A fungal in vitro model has several advantages e.g., it is easily up-scaled and ethical problems associated with animal-based models are avoided. The metabolism of bupivacaine and the selective androgen receptor modulators (SARMs) S1, S4 and S24 by the fungi Cunninghamella elegans and Cunninghamella blakesleeana was investigated. The detected metabolites were compared with those formed in vitro and in vivo by human and horse and most phase I metabolites formed by mammals were also formed by the fungi. The higher levels of bupivacaine metabolites in the fungal samples allowed an extensive mass spectrometric structural characterization which shows that the fungi are relevant metabolic models. Glucuronides are important drug metabolites but they are difficult to synthesize. The discovery that the fungus Cunninghamella elegans formed large amounts of glucosides led to the idea that they could be used to form glucuronides. A new concept was developed where a fungal incubate containing a SARM S1 glucoside was mixed with the free radical tetramethylpiperidinyl-1-oxy (TEMPO), sodium bromide and sodium hypochlorite which produced a glucuronide. Isolation and characterization by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy proved that the new method could produce glucuronides for use as reference material. An investigation of reactive metabolite formation of the drugs paracetamol, mefenamic acid and diclofenac by the fungus Cunninghamella elegans was performed. It was demonstrated for the first time that the fungus could produce glutathione, glutathione ethyl-ester, cysteine and N-acetylcysteine conjugates that are indicative of a preceding formation of reactive intermediates. A comparison with conjugates formed by human liver microsomes showed that both models formed identical metabolites. The presented investigations prove that Cunninghamella fungi are relevant drug metabolism models. They show that the fungi to a large extent forms the same metabolites as mammals and that they can produce metabolites for use as reference material in, e.g. doping control. It was also demonstrated that the fungal model can be used in the important assessment of drug toxicity

Drug Metabolites Formed by Cunninghamella Fungi : Mass Spectrometric Characterization and Production for use in Doping Control

This thesis describes the in vitro production of drug metabolites using fungi of the Cunninghamella species. The metabolites were characterized with mainly liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry using ion-trap and quadrupole-time-of-flight instruments. A fungal in vitro model has several advantages e.g., it is easily up-scaled and ethical problems associated with animal-based models are avoided. The metabolism of bupivacaine and the selective androgen receptor modulators (SARMs) S1, S4 and S24 by the fungi Cunninghamella elegans and Cunninghamella blakesleeana was investigated. The detected metabolites were compared with those formed in vitro and in vivo by human and horse and most phase I metabolites formed by mammals were also formed by the fungi. The higher levels of bupivacaine metabolites in the fungal samples allowed an extensive mass spectrometric structural characterization which shows that the fungi are relevant metabolic models. Glucuronides are important drug metabolites but they are difficult to synthesize. The discovery that the fungus Cunninghamella elegans formed large amounts of glucosides led to the idea that they could be used to form glucuronides. A new concept was developed where a fungal incubate containing a SARM S1 glucoside was mixed with the free radical tetramethylpiperidinyl-1-oxy (TEMPO), sodium bromide and sodium hypochlorite which produced a glucuronide. Isolation and characterization by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy proved that the new method could produce glucuronides for use as reference material. An investigation of reactive metabolite formation of the drugs paracetamol, mefenamic acid and diclofenac by the fungus Cunninghamella elegans was performed. It was demonstrated for the first time that the fungus could produce glutathione, glutathione ethyl-ester, cysteine and N-acetylcysteine conjugates that are indicative of a preceding formation of reactive intermediates. A comparison with conjugates formed by human liver microsomes showed that both models formed identical metabolites. The presented investigations prove that Cunninghamella fungi are relevant drug metabolism models. They show that the fungi to a large extent forms the same metabolites as mammals and that they can produce metabolites for use as reference material in, e.g. doping control. It was also demonstrated that the fungal model can be used in the important assessment of drug toxicity

New Analytical Framework for Verification of Biomarkers of Exposure to Chemicals Combining Human Biomonitoring and Water Fingerprinting

Molecular epidemiology approaches in human biomonitoring are powerful tools that allow for verification of public exposure to chemical substances. Unfortunately, due to logistical difficulties and high cost, they tend to evaluate small study groups and as a result might not provide comprehensive large scale community-wide exposure data. Urban water fingerprinting provides a timely alternative to traditional approaches. It can revolutionize the human exposure studies as urban water represents collective community-wide exposure. Knowledge of characteristic biomarkers of exposure to specific chemicals is key to the successful application of water fingerprinting. This study aims to introduce a novel conceptual analytical framework for identification of biomarkers of public exposure to chemicals via combined human metabolism and urban water fingerprinting assay. This framework consists of the following steps: (1) in vitro HLM/S9 assay, (2) in vivo pooled urine assay, (3) in vivo wastewater fingerprinting assay, (4) analysis with HR-MSMS, (5) data processing, and (6) selection of biomarkers. The framework was applied and validated for PCMC (4-chloro-m-cresol), household derived antimicrobial agent with no known exposure and human metabolism data. Four new metabolites of PCMC (hydroxylated, sulfated/hydroxylated, sulfated PCMC, and glucuronidated PCMC) were identified using the in vitro HLM/S9 assay. But only one metabolite, sulfated PCMC, was confirmed in wastewater and in urine. Therefore, our study confirms that water fingerprinting is a promising tool for biomarker selection and that in vitro HLM/S9 studies alone, although informative, do not provide high accuracy results. Our work also confirms, for the first time, human internal exposure to PCMC

Mass spectrometric characterization of glucuronides formed by a new concept, combining Cunninghamella elegans with TEMPO

A new concept for the production of drug glucuronides is presented and the products formed were characterized using ultra high performance liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (UPLC-HRMS). Glucuronic acid conjugates are important phase II metabolites of a wide range of drugs. There is a lack of commercially available glucuronides and classic synthetic methods are tedious and expensive. Thus, new methods of glucuronide synthesis are needed. Selective androgen receptor modulators (SARMs) of the aryl propionamide class were used as model compounds and were incubated with the fungus Cunninghamella elegans which was previously known to conjugate drugs with glucose. The resulting glucoside metabolites were then oxidized with tetramethylpiperidinyl-1-oxy (TEMPO). UPLC-HRMS analysis showed that the peaks corresponding to the glucosides had disappeared after the reaction and were replaced by peaks with m/z consistent with the corresponding glucuronic acid conjugates. The MS/MS spectra of the reaction products were investigated and the observed fragment ion pattern corroborated the suggested structural change. A comparison in terms of retention times and product ion spectra between the glucuronides formed by the new method and those produced by liver microsomes indicated that the conjugates from the two different sources were identical, thus demonstrating the human relevance of the presented technique. Furthermore, the glucuronides formed by the presented method were readily hydrolyzed by beta-glucuronidase which further gave evidence as to the fact that they were of beta configuration. The investigated method was easy to perform, required a low input of work and had a low cost. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

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

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 beta-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 Si 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 beta-conjugate of hydroxylated SARM Si bearing the glucuronide moiety on carbon C-10. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved