Absence of Mutagenic Effects of Sodium Dichloroacetate

1. ANTHONY W. FOX¹,
2. XIAOQING YANG,
3. HEMATHALA MURLI^*,
4. TIMOTHY E. LAWLOR^*,
5. MARIA A. CIFONE* 
6. FREDERICK E. RENO^†

+ Author Affiliations

¹To whom correspondence should be addressed

Received January 12, 1996.

Accepted March 20, 1996.

Abstract

Sodium dichloroacetate is a drug with the potential to treat stroke and brain injury patients (DCA). There have been conflicting reports regarding DCA’s mutagenic potential. Pharmaceutical-grade DCA was put through a number of genetic tests to see if it was mutagenic and clastogenic. Four distinct mutagenicity tests were used, some of which included metabolic activity and others did not. These studies investigated the thymidine kinase locus forward mutation in L5178Y mouse lymphoma cells, the Salmonella and Escherichia coli mutation (Ames) assays, and an in vivo rat bone marrow erythroid micronucleus test. They also looked at chromosomal anomalies in Chinese hamster ovary cells. In any of the research, there was no proof of the mutagenic effects of DCA. It’s likely that the samples analyzed in older papers contained more impurities than the pharmaceutical grade test material now in use. These details supplement earlier released information on DCA and occasionally contradict it.