Melatonin Identified by Researchers as Possible COVID-19 Treatment

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melatonin a drug used to enhance sleep was seen by researchers as a potential treatment for Coronavirus

A Cleveland Clinic-led study suggests that melatonin may be a viable treatment option for COVID-19. According to the findings published today in PLOS Biology, a platform for various researches developed by Lerner Research Institute, melatonin is one of the promising candidates as a treatment for COVID-19.

According to the National Center For Complementary and Integrative Health, melatonin is a hormone that the brain produces in response to darkness and helps with the circadian rhythms and sleep timing. They added that being exposed to light at night can block melatonin production.

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Medical Xpress said that reorientation of drugs or medication already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for new beneficial purposes is the most cost-efficient approach in treating COVID-19. Cleveland Clinic's Genomic Medicine Institute and lead author of the study Feixiong Cheng, Ph.D., said in the release that it is very important to note the findings and stressed not to suggest people should start taking melatonin without consulting an expert or their physician. He added that large scale observational research and randomized controlled trials are needed to validate the clinical benefit of melatonin to COVID-19 positive patients.

Earlier in the year a study from the University of Buffalo, co-investigator on trial and Jacob School associate professor of medicine, Jessica Reynolds said in a release that melatonin had diminished pro-inflammatory molecules such as cytokines, which levels of them are known to contribute to the severity of COVID-19, to multiple animal models. Another earlier study published in Science Direct also said that melatonin showed its effectiveness in critical care patients by reducing vessel permeability, anxiety, sedation use, and improve sleep quality, which might also be advantageous for better clinical outcomes for COVID-19 patients.

Methods and results of the study

The researchers connected network medicine methodologies and large-scale electronic health records from Cleveland Clinic patients in identifying clinical displays and pathologies, which are common between COVID-19 and other diseases. According to Medical Xpress, the researcher found that proteins associated with respiratory distress syndrome and sepsis, which are the two main causes of mortality among severe COVID-19 positive patients, are connected with multiple SARS-CoV-2 proteins.

According to Dr. Cheng, a drug that is already approved in treating the said respiratory condition may have some utility in treating COVID-19 by acting on the shared biological targets. He added that autoimmune, pulmonary, and neurological diseases showed a significant connection to SARS-CoV-2 genes/proteins and identified 34 drugs or medication reorientation candidates, and melatonin is one of them.

In the release, Dr. Cheng said that recent studies suggest that COVID-19 is a systematic disease affecting multiple cell types, organs, and tissues. Knowing the connection between the virus and other diseases is important to understand the COVID-19 complications. He furthered that it will also help in identifying medications that can undergo reorientation. Dr. Cheng also highlighted in the release that their study provides a powerful, integrative network strategy to predict disease indicators associated with COVID-19.

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