Genotoxic effects of oxyclozanide on hemocytes of Galleria mellonella (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) larvae

: Oxyclozanide is a salicylanilide derivative anthelmintic drug with a well-known effect on parasites that cause infections in humans and animals. In this study, the effect of oxyclozanide on DNA damage in hemocytes of Galleria mellonella (L.) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) larvae, which has been used as a model organism in many fields, was investigated. Hemolymph was collected from the last instar larvae (7th instar) reared on artificial diets containing oxyclozanide at different concentrations (0.003%, 0.03%, 0.3%, and 1.5%) under laboratory conditions and then hemocytes suspension was prepared. Genotoxic damage in hemocytes was determined by the comet assay which enables microscopically detecting DNA damage and is a very sensitive assay in chemical genotoxicity. When compared to the control group, tail length, tail DNA percent, and tail moment values were significantly increased parallel with increasing oxyclozanide concentrations. While the tail length was determined as 5.11 ± 0.46 µm in the control group, it was significantly increased in all tested groups to 13.17 ± 0.53, 27.98 ± 1.08, 98.44 ± 0.77, and 137.67 ± 0.74 µm, respectively. Similarly to tail length, tail DNA percentage and tail moment levels were also significantly increased from 12.86 ± 0.74 to 91.96 ± 0.31 at the highest concentration of oxyclozanide. These results showed that oxyclozanide caused DNA damage in the hemocytes of G. mellonella . It is also known that hemocytes are an important bioindicator in determining the genotoxicity of anthelmintics to be used as insecticides within environmentally friendly limits. It is thought that our results will contribute to the studies in this field.