A new study conducted by the researchers of Cleveland Clinic has suggested that melatonin could be a practical treatment option for COVID-19, the infection caused by the new coronavirus.
Melatonin is a hormone responsible for regulating your sleep-wake cycle. It is commonly used as an over-the-counter (OTC) sleep aid.
As COVID-19 continued to grapple the whole world, researchers are leaving no stone unturned in repurposing or repositioning drugs that have already been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treating or preventing the infection caused by the new coronavirus.
The new study published Monday in PLOS Biology has revealed that melatonin can be a promising drug candidate for patients with COVID-19.
The researchers analyzed data from Cleveland Clinic’s COVID-19 registry and found that melatonin use was associated with a nearly 30% reduced likelihood of testing positive for the virus after considering age, race, smoking history, and various comorbidities of the patients.
Interestingly, the reduced likelihood of testing positive for COVID-19 increased from 30% to 52% for African Americans while considering the same variables.
Lead author Dr. Feixiong Cheng said, “It is very important to note these findings do not suggest people should start to take melatonin without consulting their physician.”
“Large-scale observational studies and randomized controlled trials are critical to validate the clinical benefit of melatonin for patients with COVID-19, but we are excited about the associations put forth in this study and the opportunity to further explore them,” he added.
The researchers found that proteins associated with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and sepsis – two main causes of death in COVID-19 patients – were highly connected with multiple SARS-CoV-2 proteins.
“This signals to us that a drug already approved to treat these respiratory conditions may have some utility in also treating COVID-19 by acting on those shared biological targets,” Dr. Cheng explained.
The researchers determined that autoimmune disorders, pulmonary diseases, and neurological implications showed significant closeness to the coronavirus proteins and identified 34 drugs as potential repurposing candidates, and melatonin is one of them.
Dr. Cheng said, “Recent studies suggest that COVID-19 is a systematic disease impacting multiple cell types, tissues, and organs, so knowledge of the complex interplays between the virus and other diseases is key to understanding COVID-19-related complications and identifying repurposable drugs.” “Our study provides a powerful, integrative network medicine strategy to predict disease manifestations associated with COVID-19 and facilitate the search for an effective treatment,” he added.
