VITOTOX bacterial genotoxicity and toxicity test for the rapid screening of chemicals.

The VITOTOX test is a new bacterial genotoxicity test that was previously shown to be very rapid and sensitive. Initially only one Salmonella typhimurium strain (TA104 recN2-4) was used in the test. In this paper we introduce a second strain (TA104pr1) that can be used as an internal control to further enhance the reliability of the test. We demonstrate the usefulness of this pr1 strain in genotoxicity and toxicity testing. We also report on the results of a study where the VITOTOX test was performed on newly synthesized pharmaceutical compounds, or intermediate products in the synthesis of drug candidates. We demonstrate that the test gives identical results when performed independently in two different laboratories and that it correlates well with either the Ames test or SOS chromotest.