The role of dietary nitrate and nitrite in the reductive deamination of sulfadiazine by the rat, guinea pig, and neonatal calf.

Previous metabolic depletion studies of 14C-sulfadiazine (SDZ) in the neonatal calf led to identification of two novel metabolites, 2-benzenesulfonamidopyrimidine (desNH2SDZ) and 2-benzenesulfonamido-4-hydroxypyrimidine. The novelty of the biotransformation prompted examination of mechanisms for the reductive deamination of SDZ in vivo. In subsequent work, it was found that neonatal calves did not consistently convert SDZ to desNH2SDZ; however, calves that were treated simultaneously with nitrite did. Further, when SDZ was given orally to guinea pigs, whose diet is high in nitrate and who demonstrate the capacity to reduce nitrate to nitrite in the oral cavity, SDZ was transformed to desNH2SDZ. Rats did not reductively deaminate SDZ even if they consumed a diet high in nitrate for two weeks prior to treatment with SDZ. However, they did so when nitrite was added to their diet. These observations strongly suggest that reductive deamination of sulfonamides is dependent on the ingestion of nitrite or the reduction of dietary nitrate to nitrite. This reduction of nitrate to nitrite proceeds in the oral cavity, presumably via microflora residing there.