Comparative study on the metabolism of the ergot alkaloids ergocristine, ergocryptine, ergotamine, and ergovaline in equine and human S9 fractions and equine liver preparations

1. Ergopeptine alkaloids like ergovaline and ergotamine are suspected to be associated with fescue toxicosis and ergotism in horses. Information on the metabolism of ergot alkaloids is scarce, especially in horses, but needed for toxicological analysis of these drugs in urine/feces of affected horses. The aim of this study was to investigate the metabolism of ergovaline, ergotamine, ergocristine, and ergocryptine in horses and comparison to humans. 2. Supernatants of alkaloid incubations with equine and human liver S9 fractions were analyzed by reversed-phase liquid-chromatography coupled to high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry with full scan and MS² acquisition. Metabolite structures were postulated based on their MS² spectra in comparison to those of the parent alkaloids. All compounds were extensively metabolized yielding nor-, N-oxide, hydroxy and dihydro-diole metabolites with largely overlapping patterns in equine and human liver S9 fractions. However, some metabolic steps e.g. the formation of 8'-hydroxy metabolites were unique for human metabolism, while formation of the 13/14-hydroxy and 13,14-dihydro-diol metabolites were unique for equine metabolism. Incubations with equine whole liver preparations yielded less metabolites than the S9 fractions. 3. The acquired data can be used to develop metabolite-based screenings for these alkaloids, which will likely extend their detection windows in urine/feces from affected horses.