Presentation: 2024 ND EPSCoR Annual conference
November 21, 2024, Alerus Center, Grand Forks, North Dakota
Effects of Benzodiazepines on the Developmental Stages of Calliphora vicina Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830 (Diptera: Calliphoridae)
Lavinia
Iancu
Faculty Member
University of North Dakota
Co-authors: Malia Wellens, B.S., University of New Haven, Forensic Science Program; Alena Kubatova, Ph.D., Chemistry Department, College of Arts and Sciences, UND; Tiberiu Sahlean, Ph.D., Ecology, Taxonomy and Nature Conservation Department, Institute of Biology Bucharest of the Romanian Academy
Session
Concurrent Presentation Session 2
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported a 24% increase in emergency department visits for benzodiazepine overdoses in 2019-2020, with nearly 7,000 overdose deaths in 23 states from January 2019 to June 2020, accounting for 17% of all drug overdose deaths (Liu et al., 2021). The postmortem interval (PMI) is crucial in legal cases, with decomposition commonly divided into five stages, each attracting scavengers like blowflies (Calliphoridae) used for PMI estimation. Factors like temperature and cause of death, including drug presence, influence decomposition and insect activity. Since studies on benzodiazepine quantification in Calliphoridae are limited, the current research aimed to examine the effects of clonazepam and flunitrazepam on the development cycle of Calliphora vicina Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830 (Diptera: Calliphoridae).
Three colonies of C. vicina were reared under the same experimental conditions: 24℃; 50% RH; 12:12 light-dark cycle. Drug concentrations were based on toxic doses per kilogram of body weight: 4 mg of clonazepam and 2 mg of flunitrazepam were spiked into a 200 g beef liver substrate. The experiment was conducted in triplicate across all three colonies. Statistical analyses using the R software environment assessed the impact of benzodiazepines on the development cycle. Results showed significant interactions between the drug-spiked substrate and developmental stage on larval weight, but no dependency between the inoculated substrate and the frequency of hatched males and females. These findings help advance our understanding of benzodiazepines’ effects on the development cycle of C. vicina and have potential implications for forensic entomology.
Acknowledgements: We thank ND EPSCoR STEM grants program 2023 for funding this research.
References:
Liu, S., O’Donnell, J., Gladden, R. M., McGlone, L., & Chowdhury, F. (2021). Trends in nonfatal and fatal overdoses involving benzodiazepines — 38 states and the District of Columbia, 2019–2020. *Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report*, 70(34), 1136-1141.