Melatonin, a common sleeping pill, is being investigated as a potential treatment for COVID-19



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CLEVELAND – Melatonin, an over-the-counter supplement commonly used as a sleeping pill, could be a potential treatment option for patients with COVID-19, according to a study from the Cleveland Clinic.

The study comes from the clinic’s Lerner Research Institute and focuses on the reuse of drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for new therapeutic uses.

Researchers have developed an artificial intelligence platform to compare the proximity between host genes and proteins of SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus responsible for COVID-19, to that of 64 other diseases in a range of categories of diseases.

From there, the data helped researchers find conditions with protein proximities similar to COVID-19 for which drugs had previously been approved for treatment. These drugs could potentially be used to treat COVID-19, the researchers said.

“This tells us that a drug approved to treat these conditions may be able to treat COVID-19 by acting on these common biological targets,” said lead researcher Feixiong Cheng.

Researchers found 34 drugs as potential candidates for reuse that are already being investigated in COVID-19 clinical trials, and that list included melatonin, the iron-reducing deferoxamine, and the antibiotic azithromycin.

Researchers took the information from the study and combined it with data collected from nearly 27,000 patients in the Cleveland Clinic’s COVID-19 registry. After adjusting for race, age, smoking history, and various disease comorbidities, melatonin use was associated with a 28% reduced likelihood of a positive COVID-19 test.

When the researchers applied the same variables to African Americans, the reduction likely fell to 52%, which is a promising sign as African Americans have been particularly affected by the virus.

While doctors are excited about the results, there is still a lot of research to be done.

“It’s important to note that this does not mean that people should start taking melatonin without first consulting their health care provider. We’re excited about these results and to investigate this connection further, but large-scale observational studies and randomized controlled trials are essential to confirm what we found here, ”said Cheng.

According to his doctor, the president took melatonin as part of his treatment for the coronavirus.

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