Mutagenicity testing of the antiparasitic drug entizol (polfa) in the detection system of Salmonella typhimurium mutants.

Abstract The mutagenic activity was tested of a clinically used drug Entizol (Polfa) which contains metronidazole as an active substance. The mutagenicity of the compound was detected for Salmonella typhimurium indicator strains TA100, TA1535, TA1950, and TA1538 in tests in vitro without metabolic activation at the concentration range of 180 to 1600 μg per plate. Metabolic conversion of the preparation studied in vivo gave rise to mutagenic metabolites detectable in the blood of mice after both intraperitoneal and per-oral application. The presence of the products of drug metabolism in the blood of experimental animals was tested at 1–40 h intervals after application. Blood samples of mice treated intraperitoneally with single doses of 1470 and 35 mg/kg were tested in strains TA100 and TA98. There were differences in the times of occurrence of mutagenic metabolites. The development of two mutagenicity maxima, detected in the blood withdrawn within the interval of 60–120 min ( R t / R c 3.1) and 19 h ( R t / R c 24.8) after the application of a dose of 1470 mg/kg in the strain TA100, is characteristic. The mutagenic effect of the blood of animals treated with a dose of 35 mg/kg, which approximately corresponds to standard therapeutic values, also had an analogous character. The highest mutagenic effect was detected in blood samples withdrawn 19 h after application ( R t / R c 15.8). The frameshift mutation-detecting strain TA98 reverted at a lower frequency (about 5 times) under the above conditions, but only during analysis of the blood samples of animals treated with a dose of 1470 mg/kg. These results indicate that, for assessing the mutagenicity of 5-nitroimidazole compounds and their metabolites in blood, it is necessary to analyse blood samples withdrawn at least up to 24 h after application of the compound. This relationship was not proved to exist between the frequencies of induced revertants during the testing of blood withdrawn within 1–24 h after single per-oral administration of the drug in a dose range of 500–62.5 mg/kg. However, the mutagenicity of blood metabolites for strain TA100 was demonstrated not earlier than 24 h after the application of Entizol at 500 and 250 mg/kg.