Genetic Screening of Compounds Used in Drug Abuse Treatment I. Naltrexone Hydrochloride

Abstract
Several compounds used clinically in drug abuse therapy were evaluated for genetic activity in a series of in vitro assays. This initial report describes the results for one of these compounds, Naltrexone. Naltrexone is a relatively nontoxic drug antagonist related to Naloxone which appears to be effective in diminishing the euphoria and dependence upon heroin in clinical studies. With the exception of weak nonspecific DNA damage observed in an E. coli DNA repair test and possibly with WI-38 cells as well, Naltrexone did not demonstrate significant potential for the induction of gene mutations or chromosomal aberrations under the conditions of this evaluation.

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