Department of Special Care in Dentistry, School of Dentistry, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
Anticancer Res. 2012 Jul;32(7):2747-53.
Melatonin has revealed itself to be a pleiotropic and multitasking molecule. The mechanisms that control its synthesis and the biological clock processes that modulate the circadian production of melatonin in the pineal gland have been well-characterized. A feature that characterizes melatonin is the variety of mechanisms it employs to modulate the physiology and molecular biology of cells. Research has implicated the pineal gland and melatonin in the processes of both aging and age-related diseases. The decline in the production of melatonin with age is thought to contribute to immunosenescence and potential development of neoplastic diseases. Melatonin has been shown to inhibit growth of different tumors under both in vitro and in vivo conditions. There is evidence that the administration of melatonin alone or in combination with interleukin-2 in conjunction with chemoradiotherapy and/or supportive care in cancer patients with advanced solid tumors, has been associated with improved outcomes of tumor regression and survival. Moreover, chemotherapy has been shown to be better tolerated in patients treated with melatonin.
褪黑素已被证明是一种多效和多功能的分子。控制其合成的机制以及调节松果腺中褪黑素昼夜产生的生物钟过程已经得到了很好的描述。褪黑素的一个特点是，它采用了多种机制来调节细胞的生理学和分子生物学。研究表明，松果腺和褪黑素参与了衰老和与年龄相关的疾病的过程。随着年龄的增长，褪黑素的产量下降被认为是导致免疫衰老和潜在肿瘤疾病发展的原因之一。研究表明，褪黑素在体外和体内条件下均可抑制不同肿瘤的生长。有证据表明，在患有晚期实体瘤的癌症患者中，单独使用褪黑素或与白细胞介素-2联合使用，结合化疗、放疗和/或支持性护理，与肿瘤消退和生存的改善结果相关。此外，研究表明，接受褪黑素治疗的患者对化疗的耐受性更好。
