State Key Laboratory of Cancer Biology, Department of Gastroenterology, Xijing Hospital, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China; Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
J Pineal Res. 2015 May;58(4):375-87. doi: 10.1111/jpi.12227. Epub 2015 Mar 23.
Gastrointestinal cancer is a disease that affects the population worldwide with high morbidity and mortality. Melatonin, an endogenously produced molecule, may provide a defense against a variety of cancer types. In particular, the ability of melatonin to inhibit gastrointestinal cancer is substantial. In this review, we first clarify the relationship between the disruption of the melatonin rhythm and gastrointestinal cancer (based on epidemiologic surveys and animal and human studies) and summarize the preventive effect of melatonin on carcinogenesis. Thereafter, the mechanisms through which melatonin exerts its anti-gastrointestinal cancer actions are explained, including inhibition of proliferation, invasion, metastasis, and angiogenesis, and promotion of apoptosis and cancer immunity. Moreover, we discuss the drug synergy effects and the role of melatonin receptors involved in the growth-inhibitory effects on gastrointestinal cancer. Taken together, the information compiled here serves as a comprehensive reference for the anti-gastrointestinal cancer actions of melatonin that have been identified to date and will hopefully aid in the design of further experimental and clinical studies and increase the awareness of melatonin as a therapeutic agent in cancers of the gastrointestinal tract.
胃肠道癌症是一种在全球范围内发病率和死亡率都很高的疾病。褪黑素是一种内源性产生的分子，可能对多种癌症类型提供防御。特别是，褪黑素抑制胃肠道癌症的能力是显著的。在这篇综述中，我们首先阐明了褪黑素节律紊乱与胃肠道癌症之间的关系（基于流行病学调查以及动物和人体研究），并总结了褪黑素对致癌作用的预防作用。此后，解释了褪黑素发挥其抗胃肠道癌作用的机制，包括抑制增殖、侵袭、转移和血管生成，以及促进细胞凋亡和癌症免疫。此外，我们还讨论了药物协同作用以及涉及褪黑素抑制胃肠道癌生长的作用的褪黑素受体的作用。总之，这里汇集的信息为迄今为止确定的褪黑素的抗胃肠道癌作用提供了全面的参考，并有望有助于设计进一步的实验和临床研究，并提高人们对褪黑素作为胃肠道癌症治疗剂的认识。
