Abstract of INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHARMA SCIENCES AND RESEARCH (IJPSR)

ABSTRACT

Title

Title: Induction of chromosomal abberations and associated developmental inhibitions in Drosophila melanogaster by hydroxyurea.

Authors

Ashim Kumar Basak, Tridip Chatterjee,Ujanie Ghosh Moulick,Rudranath Banerjee

Keywords

Drosophila melanogaster, Hydroxyurea, larva, pupa , chromosomal constriction, ectopic pairing, asynapsis

Issue Date

Oct 2017

Abstract

Hydroxyurea, also known as hydroxycarbamide, is a medicine that is currently used as an anticancer chemotherapeutic agent. The antitumor activity of hydroxyurea is based on its ability to inhibit DNA synthesis. The drug has also proved its efficacy in the treatment of sickle cell disease owing to its ability to increase the level of fetal hemoglobin and a compensatory reduction in sickle hemoglobin that prevents sickling of red blood cells and reduces vaso-occlusion and hemolysis. Hydroxyurea has exhibited teratogenic effects in animals. However, the teratogenic influence of this drug in human is controversial as some studies have shown that the use of this drug during pregnancy yielded no congenital abnormalities in newborns. To resolve this issue it is imperative to see the effects of this drug on development experimentally in an animal model. Drosophila melanogaster, a popular model organism has an extensive genetic homology with human. Furthermore, fundamental biological mechanisms and pathways that control development and survival are conserved across the evolution between human and this fly. Thus in the present study an attempt has been made to assess the effect of hydroxyurea on the development of Drosophila melanogaster to appraise the probable outcome of the exposure of this drug during in human development. The drug exhibited a dose dependent negative effect on two important aspects of the development of the fly such as- time needed for metamorphosis and progeny number. Inhibition of development of the fly was accompanied with notable abnormalities in larval polytene chromosomes likeconstriction, asynapsis, ectopic pairing etc. We speculate that larval chromosomal abnormalities inhibited the expressions of many genes needed during the course of development. Owing to extensive genetic homology of this fly with human and its extensive use for developmental and toxicological studies, it is possible that the use of this drug during pregnancy may impose analogous negative influences on human development as shown by the flies.

Page(s)

202-210

ISSN

0975-9492

Source

Vol. 8, No.10