Fig 1.
(A) Chemical structure of gefitinib and assigned atomic numbers. (B) Full-scan mass spectrum of gefitinib. (C) MS/MS spectrum at m/z 447.1600 and fragment pattern assignment of gefitinib.
Fig 2.
Full scan chromatograms and extracted ion chromatograms [M+H]+ of gefitinib and its tentative metabolites in human plasma.
Line chart in green: Sample group. Plasma collected after oral administration of gefitinib. Line chart in blue: Control group. Plasma collected before oral administration of gefitinib. The parent drug and 18 tentative metabolites were discovered by comparing sample group with control group and are labeled in order of retention time.
Table 1.
Summary of tentative identification of gefitinib metabolites in human plasma.
Fig 3.
MS/MS spectra of sixteen tentative metabolites obtained from their respective precursors under collision-induced dissociation.
The structures were elucidated by analyzing the fragmentation patterns and confirmed using structure matching software MetabolitePilot™.
Fig 4.
Proposed metabolic pathways of gefitinib in humans in vivo.
Compound marked with dotted bracket is given to elucidate the proposed metabolic pathways, which were not observed.