Evaluation of genotoxicity of the indenoisoquinoline analogues of fagaronine and nitidine in Drosophila melanogaster.

The wing spot test of Drosophila melanogaster was done to evaluate the genotoxicity of the antitumor indenoisoquinoline analogues of nitidine chloride and fagaronine chloride in larvae. Both compounds have toxic effects but no statistically significant increase in the frequency of spots was detected with the analogue of nitidine chloride. This strongly suggests that this compound is not mutagenic to Drosophila larvae at the concentrations tested. Results with the analogue of fagaronine chloride were ambiguous. Low mutagenicity was detected in only one of two experiments and in the pooled results at 2 mM but not at 5 mM or 10 mM. These results suggest at best a very weak genotoxic effect but its biological significance needs confirmation by results from other assays.