Genotoxicity of amebicide and anthelmintic drugs in Escherichia coli pol A+/pol A-.

The amebicides dehydroemetine and chloroquine diphosphate and the anthelmintic pyrvinium pamoate, previously reported to be mutagenic in Salmonella typhimurium (Cortinas de Nava et al., 1983), were clearly shown to be genotoxic in the Escherichia coli pol A+/pol A- assay. Two other antiparasitic drugs, diiodohydroxyquin and 4-hexylresorcinol, were also found to be genotoxic in E. coli, while iodochlorhydroxyquin preferentially inhibited the pol A+ strain. From the 3 alternative testing methods employed, the liquid suspension succeeded in detecting 5 antiparasitic drugs as genotoxic; the microsuspension identified 2, and the disc diffusion method only 1. However, the metabolic activation system could only be coupled successfully and in a reproducible way to the microsuspension assay.