Modulatory effects of the antioxidant ascorbic acid on the direct genotoxicity of doxorubicin in somatic cells of Drosophila melanogaster

In this study two different crosses involving the wing cell markers mwh and flr³ (standard (ST) cross and high bioactivation (HB) cross, the latter being characterized by a high constitutive level of cytochrome P450 which leads to an increased sensitivity to a number of promutagens and procarcinogens) were used to investigate the modulatory effects of ascorbic acid (AA) combined with the antitumor agent doxorubicin (DXR) in Drosophila melanogaster. We observed that the two different concentrations of AA (50 or 100 mM) had no effect on spots frequencies, while DXR treatments (0.2 or 0.4 mM) gave positive results for all types of spots, when compared to negative control. For marker-heterozygous (MH) flies, a protective effect was observed with the lower concentration of AA (50 mM) that was able to statistically decrease the frequency of spots induced by DXR (0.2 mM), while an enhanced frequency of spots induced by DXR was observed with the higher concentration of AA (100 mM), when compared to DXR treatment (p < 0.05). These results suggest that AA may interfere with free radicals generated by DXR and with other possible reactive metabolites. The efficiency of AA in protecting the somatic cells of D. melanogaster against mutation and recombination induced by DXR is dependent on the dose used and the protection is directly related to the activity of cytochrome P450 enzymes