Primary toxicological evaluation of nitroxoline on laboratory animals

Nitroxoline is an effective antibacterial agent that is industrially produced by chemical and pharmaceutical enterprises in Ukraine. Parameters of its toxicity are determined under conditions of acute and subchronic toxicological experiments on 3 kinds of laboratory animals, by administering the drug orally and by application onto the skin and mucous membranes. The duration of acute experiment was 14 days, subchronical - 24 days. It was found that median lethal dose (DL50) for white female rats is 980 (852:1127) mg/kg, of white male rats – 835 mg/kg, white male mice– 660 mg/kg, by this parameter the drug can be attributed to 3 class of hazard – moderately hazardous substance. Average effective time of death (ET50) for albino rats is 28 hours. Species sensitivity of laboratory animals to nitroxoline is slightly expressed. The death of the animals starts on the first day after the injection and is recorded during three days of the experiment. In application on intact skin, locally-irritant and skin-resorptive effects are absent. After contact with the mucous membrane of the eye the drug causes weak irritant effect. Nitroxoline has a moderate cumulative activity.