Melatonin Holds Potential as New COVID-19 Treatment

Results from a Cleveland Clinic-led study suggest that melatonin, a hormone that regulates the sleep-wake cycle and is commonly used as an over-the-counter sleep aid, may be a viable treatment option for COVID-19.

Melatonin could hold potential as a new treatment option for treating the novel coronavirus infection.

According to the results in PLOS Biology, new artificial intelligence platform developed by Lerner Research Institute researchers helps identify possible drugs for COVID-19.

Melatonin Treatment for COVID-19
Melatonin limits virus-related diseases and would also likely be beneficial in COVID-19 patients, revealed significant data.

‘Repurposing drugs already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for new therapeutic purposes continues to be the most efficient and cost-effective approach to treat or prevent the disease.’
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Analysis of patient data from Cleveland Clinic's COVID-19 registry also revealed that melatonin usage was linked to a 30 percent decreased chance of contracting SARS-CoV-2. The reduced likelihood of testing positive for the virus increased from 30 to 52 percent for African Americans when adjusted for the same variables.

"It is very important to note these findings do not suggest people should start to take melatonin without consulting their physician," said Feixiong Cheng, Ph.D., assistant staff in Cleveland Clinic's Genomic Medicine Institute and lead author on the study.

"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."

Researchers measured the proximity between host genes and diseases across several disease categories, where closer proximity indicates a higher likelihood of pathological associations between the diseases.

They found that the proteins linked to respiratory distress syndrome and sepsis, two main causes of death in patients with severe COVID-19, were highly connected with multiple SARS-CoV-2 proteins.

"This signals to us, then," explained Dr. Cheng, "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."

Overall, they determined that autoimmune (e.g., inflammatory bowel disease), pulmonary (e.g., chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and pulmonary fibrosis) and neurological (e.g., depression and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder) diseases showed significant network proximity to SARS-CoV-2 genes/proteins and identified 34 drugs as repurposing candidates, melatonin chief among them.

"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," said Dr. Cheng.

"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."

Source-Medindia