Acute toxicity of the iron clathrochelate complexes

Abstract

A new class of highly valent iron compounds is formed by atmospheric oxidation in aqueous media and it is extremely stable both in solid and soluble conditions and may exist indefinitely in a medium without signs of degradation. The first clathrochelate complexes of iron (IV) are infinitely stable in water and readily available from simple, commercially available, inexpensive source materials with surprisingly mild reaction conditions. To create new drugs on their bases, research on their toxicity is required. In this study, the results of preclinical studies of a new iron clathrochelates drug are presented. Experiments were carried out on white rats and quails, which in the previous experiment were divided into five experimental and two control groups. The solution of iron clathrochelate complexes was administered intragastrically in doses 50, 500, 1000, 2000 and 5000 mg/kg, respectively. Our results have shown that there were no grounds for using rats in the advanced experiment because the conducted research has established that iron clathrochelate is non toxic to rats. Thus, the minimum dose of iron clathrochelate complexes did not cause death of quails, and the largest dose caused 100% mortality. The basic experiment was conducted on 6 groups of birds, each consisting of 7 quails. The drug was administered in the following doses: 500, 600, 700, 800, 900, 1000 mg/kg. The monitoring observation of the laboratory birds lasted for 14 days. It has been established that the average lethal dose of clathrochelate of the investigated drug for internal administration in quails is 764 ± 33 mg/kg. According to the classification of chemicals by the degree of danger (State ST 12.1.007-76), iron (IV) clathrochelate complexes correspond to the third class of hazard, and according to the classification of substances for toxicity they are classified as category 4 (low toxicity substances). The prospect of further research is to investigate the pharmacological and toxicological properties of iron (IV) clathrochelate for chronic toxicity.

Keywords

• toxicology; preclinical studies; average lethal dose; iron (iv); rats; quails.