Valnemulin, a semisynthetic pleuromutilin
derivative related to
tiamulin, is broadly used to treat bacterial diseases of animals.
Despite its widespread use, metabolism in animals has not yet been
fully investigated. To better understand valnemulin biotransformation,
in this study, metabolites of valnemulinin in in vitro and in vivo
rats, chickens, swines, goats, and cows were identified and elucidated
using ultraperformance liquid chromatography–quadrupole/time-of-flight
hybrid mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q/TOF-MS). As a result, there were
totally 7 metabolites of valnemulin identified in vitro and 75, 61,
and 74 metabolites detected in in vivo rats, chickens, and swines,
respectively, and the majority of metabolites were reported for the
first time. The main metabolic pathways of valnemulin were found to
be hydroxylation in the mutilin part (the ring system) and the side
chain, oxidization on the sulfur of the side chain to form S-oxides, hydrolysis of the amido bond, and acetylization
in the amido of the side chain. In addition, hydroxylation in the
mutilin part was proposed to be the primary metabolic route. Furthermore,
the results revealed that 2β-hydroxyvalnemulin (V1) and 8α-hydroxyvalnemulin
(V2) were the major metabolites for rats and swines and S-oxides (V6) in chickens.