Evaluation of albendazole-induced genotoxicity using the somatic mutation and recombination test (SMART): implications for chemotherapy of neglected tropical parasitic diseases.

The present study evaluated the genotoxic potential of albendazole (ABZ) using the Somatic Mutation and Recombination Test (SMART) in wing cells of Drosophila melanogaster. Third-instar larvae obtained from standard (ST) and high bioactivation (HB) crosses were exposed for approximately 48 hours to final concentrations of 20, 30, and 40 mg/mL of ABZ incorporated into the larval medium. Distilled water was used as the negative control, while 10 mM urethane served as positive control. Only marker-heterozygous descendants (mwh flr⁺/mwh⁺ flr³), hereafter referred to as trans-heterozygous flies, were analyzed, in accordance with standard SMART protocol. Balancer-heterozygous progeny (carrying TM3, BdS) were excluded from scoring, as recommended in the original methodology. Genotoxicity was assessed based on the frequency and phenotype of mutant wing spots. No statistically significant increases in small single spots, large single spots, twin spots, or total spots were observed in either cross. Results indicate the absence of mutagenic and recombinogenic effects of ABZ under the experimental conditions employed. These findings suggest that neither albendazole nor its metabolites generated in the HB cross induced detectable loss of heterozygosity events in imaginal disc cells. Overall, the findings demonstrate that ABZ does not induce genotoxic effects in the wing SMART assay, although further studies using complementary endpoints are warranted.