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Melatonin in Cell Fate Decisions: Mechanistic Perspectives and Therapeutical Potential

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Natural compounds as inducers of cell death

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Abstract

Melatonin, an indolamine derived from the amino-acid tryptophan via synthesis of serotonin, is secreted by the pineal gland in cyclical periods. In mammals, melatonin is involved in physiological processes, such as sleep/wake regulation in the circadian cycle. It has antioxidant oncostatic and anti-inflammatory properties, functions as an immunomodulator, and stimulates bone metabolism. In particular, the antitumor effects of melatonin, have been studied in multiple cancer cell types including melanoma, breast and prostate cancer, lymphoma, ovarian and colorectal cancer. This chapter summarizes the numerous observations about melatonin anticancer effects in both in vivo and in vitro studies published in recent years as well as the action mechanisms of melatonin involved in its anticarcinogenic activity focusing on the signalling pathways that regulate programmed cell death. In the majority of studies, melatonin has shown to inhibit development and/or growth of various experimental animal tumors and human cancer cell lines in vitro promoting apoptosis in contrast to the obvious inhibition of apoptotic processes in normal cells (focused in immune cells and neurons). Furthermore, if melatonin uniformly induced apoptosis in cancer cells, the findings could have important clinical utility given that many tumors show resistance to drug treatment due to their resistance to undergo apoptosis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Seville, Profesor García González Street 2, 41012, Seville, Spain

    M. Sánchez-Hidalgo, I. Villegas & Catalina Alarcón De La Lastra

  2. Instituto de Biomedicina de Sevilla (IBis), Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocio/CSIC/Universidad de Sevilla, Seville, Spain

    J. M. Guerrero

  3. Department of Medical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Seville School of Medicine, Seville, Spain

    J. M. Guerrero

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  1. M. Sánchez-Hidalgo
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  2. J. M. Guerrero
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  3. I. Villegas
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  4. Catalina Alarcón De La Lastra
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Correspondence to M. Sánchez-Hidalgo .

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  1. , Laboratoire de Biologie Moléculaire et C, Hôpotal Kirchberg, Rue Edward Steichen 9, Steichen, L- 2540, Luxembourg

    Marc Diederich

  2. , Laboratoire de Biologie Moléculaire et C, Hôpotal Kirchberg, Rue Edward Steichen 9, Steichen, L- 2540, Luxembourg

    Karoline Noworyta

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Sánchez-Hidalgo, M., Guerrero, J.M., Villegas, I., De La Lastra, C.A. (2012). Melatonin in Cell Fate Decisions: Mechanistic Perspectives and Therapeutical Potential. In: Diederich, M., Noworyta, K. (eds) Natural compounds as inducers of cell death. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4575-9_6

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