Rapid multi-component detection of fluorinated drug metabolites in whole urine from a ‘cassette’ dose study using high resolution 19F NMR spectroscopy

High resolution 19F NMR spectroscopy has been successfully applied to the analysis of drug metabolites in whole rat urine from a ‘cassette’ dose study of 6 fluorinated test compounds dosed at 10 mg kg–1 per compound. A total of 21 compound-related molecules were rapidly detected in the 0–8 h urine samples. The metabolic fate of the compounds after cassette administration appeared to be the same as when the compounds were dosed individually. 19F NMR may thus enable metabolism to be estimated for several compounds simultaneously, with minimal sample preparation, and without interference from endogenous molecules in the biofluid. This analytical approach may therefore be of value at the drug discovery stage in the development of ‘high throughput’ in vivo metabolic screens.