Study of genotoxic effect of lorazepam (ativan)‎ on Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract EN

The mutagenic potentialities of psychoactive drug, lorazepam was tested in Drosophila melanogaster using two test systems, the sex-linked recessive lethals test (SLRL) and the estimation of the activities of the enzymes cholinesterase (CHE) and aliesterase (AliE).

Org K, male flies of Drosophila melanogaster were reared on a medium containing two concentrations of the drug, 5 and 10 mg/100 ml medium, and screened for sex-linked recessive lethals.

The results indicated that significant number of recessive lethals were induced in Drosophila in all stages of spermatogenesis except in spermatozoa stage at the two doses of the drug, indicating that lorazepam(ativan) is capable of inducing sex-linked recessive lethal mutations in Drosophila melanogaster.

Meanwhile, the drug showed a mutagenic effect on the genetic background of each of CHE and AliE, which proves the mutagenic potentiality of the drug.