Urinary metabolites and metabolic pathways of three analogues of 1-phenyl-2-(pyrrolidine-1-yl)pentan-1-one (α-PVP) in humans

Abstract

 Three analogues of 1-phenyl-2-(pyrrolidin-1-yl)pentan-1-one (α-PVP), 1-(4-fluorophenyl)-2-(pyrolidin-1-yl)pentan-1-one (4F-α-PVP), 1-(4-methoxyphenyl)-2-(pyrrolidin-1-yl)pentan-1-one (4MeO-α-PVP) and 2-(pyrrolidin-1-yl)-1-(thiophen-2-yl)pentan-1-one (α-PVT), and their metabolites were determined in users' urine by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry using newly synthesized authentic standards. The identified metabolites indicated that metabolic pathways of three α-PVP analogues include the reduction of the carbonyl group to the corresponding alcohols and the oxidation of the pyrrolidine ring to the corresponding pyrrolidone, and 4MeO-α-PVP and α-PVT have additional metabolic pathways of the O-demethylation and the oxidation of thienyl group respectively. The quantitative analyses of the urinary metabolites suggested that the main metabolic pathways of these α-pyrrolidinophenones (PPs) derivatives could vary largely depending on the aromatic rings or substituent groups on the aromatic ring of PPs.