A New Method for Determining Acute Toxicity in Animal Models

BACKGROUND: The intake of pharmacological substances by man has solely increased and this may be in the form of food, medicines and beverages, other industrial and household products. These substances are capable of eliciting chronic and acute toxicity, which may be mild or severe, depending upon their nature. Acute toxicity is defined as the unwanted effect(s) that occurs either immediately or at a short time interval after a single or multiple administration of such substance within 24 hours. The principal aim of this paper is to introduce a new method for testing toxicity, which if adopted, should produce more accurate and reproducible results using few animals. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The proposed method is divided into three stages, with the outcome of each stage determining whether to terminate testing of proceed to the next stage. A confirmatory (confidence) test is used to validate the final test result. The method shows enormous advantages, which include the use of few animals, exploration of a wide range of doses, it is simple and inexpensive. CONCLUSION: Furthermore, accurate and reproducible result can be gotten through this method. We therefore recommend that the method should be considered for endorsement for the testing of acute toxicity by the regulatory bodies.