Mutagenic and genotoxic potential of direct electric current in Escherichia coli and Salmonella thyphimurium strains.

Direct electric current has several therapeutic uses such as antibacterial and antiprotozoal action, tissues scarring and regeneration, as well as tumor treatment. This method has shown promising results in vivo and in vitro, with significant efficacy and almost no side effects. Considering lack of studies regarding direct electric current mutagenic and/or genotoxic effects, the present work evaluated both aspects by using five different bacterial experimental assays: survival of repair-deficient mutants, Salmonella-histidine reversion mutagenesis (Ames test), forward mutations to rifampicin resistance, phage reactivation, and lysogenic induction.

Overexpression of Escherichia coli nucleotide excision repair genes after cisplatin-induced damage.

Cisplatin is currently used in tumor chemotherapy to induce the death of malignant cells through blockage of DNA replication. It is a commonly used chemotherapeutic agent binding mono- or bifunctionally to guanines in DNA. Escherichia coli K12 mutant strains deficient in nucleotide excision repair (NER) were submitted to increasing concentrations of cisplatin, and the results revealed that uvrA and uvrB mutants are sensitive to this agent, while uvrC and cho mutants remain as the wild type strain.