Therapeutic applications of melatonin

Abstract

Melatonin is a methoxyindole synthesized within the pineal gland. The hormone is secreted during the night and appears to play multiple roles within the human organism. The hormone contributes to the regulation of biological rhythms, may induce sleep, has strong antioxidant action and appears to contribute to the protection of the organism from carcinogenesis and neurodegenerative disorders. At a therapeutic level as well as in prevention, melatonin is used for the management of sleep disorders and jet lag, for the resynchronization of circadian rhythms in situations such as blindness and shift work, for its preventive action in the development of cancer, as additive therapy in cancer and as therapy for preventing the progression of Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders.

Sleep Disorders in the Early Recovery Period of Cerebral Stroke and the Possibility of Chronotherapeutical Correction

“…Экзогенный мелатонин, принимаемый в вечернее время, стабилизирует работу супрахиазменных ядер гипоталамуса и обозначает точку отсчета для опре-деления субъективного темного времени суток, открывая «ворота сна» [20][21]. В ряде исследований было проде-монстрировано положительное влияние мелатонина на дневную сонливость, сокращение периода засыпания и количество ночных пробуждений, восстановление нару-шенной инициации сна у больных с ЦИ [22][23][24][25][26].…”

The contribution of circadian rhythms to cancer formation and mortality

“…In addition, physiological levels of melatonin were shown to stimulate multiple DNA repair systems and reduce the metastatic properties of human breast cancer cells (Sliwinski et al, 2007;. At pharmacologically relevant levels, melatonin decreased cell proliferation in a variety of cancer cell type, including cervical cancer, gliomas, and ovarian cancer, and has also been shown to induce apoptosis in specific cancer cell lines without cytotoxicity to any noncancerous cells (Kostoglou-Athanassiou, 2013;Rodriguez et al, 2013). To examine the tumorigenic effects of "light at night" in animal models, Blask and colleagues exposed rats with human breast cancer xenografts to one of six different intensities of light during their normal dark phase, ranging from total darkness to bright light, and reported a dose-related tumor growth rate and bloodmelatonin suppression, with more light at night corresponding to faster tumor growth rates and lower blood-melatonin levels .…”

Melatonin as an Interventional Novel Candidate for the Individual with Autistic Fragile X Syndrome in Human

“…In clinical, melatonin is commonly used for insomnia, and also applied in children with autism [23]. And experimental studies reported that melatonin treatment could attenuate sleep disorder without side effect [24]. In this paper, we discuss the effect of circadian dysregulation on physical and behavioral abnormalities.…”