Assessment of genotoxicity of Lidocaine, Prilonest and Septanest in the Drosophila wing-spot test.

Abstract The scope of this study was to characterize the likely interaction Lidocaine ® , Prilonest ® and Septanest ® have with DNA, with a view to quantitatively and qualitatively establishing mutagenic, clastogenic, and/or recombinagenic activity of those compounds. The wing somatic mutation and recombination test in Drosophila melanogaster , which detects simultaneously point and chromosomal mutations as well as recombination induced by the activity of genotoxins of direct and indirect action, was used. Each of the anesthetics was tested at different concentrations, administered orally for 48 h to 3rd-stage larvae, in two independent experiments, with concurrent negative controls. The results obtained revealed that only Prilonest ® exhibits genotoxic activity in somatic cells, being able to induce exclusively homologous recombination. Additionally, it was possible to conclude that the genotoxic effect attributed to Prilonest ® is not related to metabolites produced via the P450-type enzymes. However, both Lidocaine ® and Septanest ® are unable to induce either events related to gene and chromosomal mutation, or reciprocal recombination.