Three Melatonin Articles Summary

This is a repository on three important articles of study regarding melatonin (not all the articles we looked at regarding melatonin)

melatonin inhibits CCO production in the mitochondria, in addition to decreasing reactive oxygen species in vivo
since it is at its lowest during the day, for example, there would be higher CCO production in the mitochondria thus
the way it occurs is essentially through chemical signal processing. When melatonin is synthesized in mitochondria it activates the melatonin type 1 signal transduction pathway which in turn inhibits CCO release
study studied mice brains through immunoblotting (an assay for detection of proteins via antibodies). You can essentially use that assay to test for enzymes in melatonin’s synthesis, they tested these in the neuronal mitochondria

melatonin is synthesized by the mitochondria, and is a mitochondria-target antioxidant b/x it scavenges ROS inhibiting the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (MPTP)
it improves homeostasis of the mitochondria
Because of this it optimizes MMP and preserves mitochondrial, functions including ATP production
“functional mitochondria decide the fate of the cells”— essentially the provide the biochemical energy to power the basic activity of cells
melatonin also has significant effects on MMP (well documented) and melatonin is a MPTP inhibitor. This is important because MPTP is known to decrease MMP because it increases mitochondrial depolarization, which causes CCO release.
this study was an aggregate of information from previous research; didn’t appear to have any experiments etc.
Melatonin inhibits MPTP. MPTP plays a critical role in what the optimal MMP is. An induction (increase in activation) of MPTP leads to instability because of imbalances of weight, which thereby leads to CCO and MMP decrease, thus leading to mitochondria being less able to function.
it helps maintain optimal MMP

it increases the production of ATP
does this by releasing enzymes which increases mitochondrial activity
article does not really go into detail about CCO in ATP production. Instead it attributes most of this to the anti-aging and neuroprotective properties of melatonin, in that it releases hormones that induce complex I activity (part of the ETC)
article studied these hormones on rat brains and livers
although it doesn’t tell us much of what we want about CCO in mitochondria and how that relates to melatonin, it has a REALLY good diagram of melatonin’s affect on ATP levels (figure 4)

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