ESI-MS/MS Interpretation and Metabolite Identification of Targeted Anti-tumor Drugs

Targeted anti-tumor drugs have been a hot spot in the research and development of new drugs, and are also the largest group of new drugs approved for marketing in China in recent years. Electrospray mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) plays a pivotal role in studies of pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism, which is an integral part of drug discovery and development nowadays. The review provided fragmentation schemes of targeted anticancer drugs including icotinib, apatinib, pyrotinib, flumatinib, furmonetinib, famitinib and their main metabolites, as well as their analogs, and discussed the general features observed in their fragmentation. The review expanded the knowledge on the fragmentation of protonated molecules under ESI-MS/MS conditions. The fragmentation of anti-tumor drugs could aid to choose product ions used in selected-reaction monitoring (SRM) bioanalysis and the m/z-shifts of fragmentation could assist with metabolite identification.