Melatonin, BAG-1 and cortisol circadian interactions in tumor pathogenesis and patterned immune responses
Abstract
A dysregulated circadian rhythm is significantly associated with cancer risk, as is aging. Both aging and circadian dysregulation show suppressed pineal melatonin, which is indicated in many studies to be linked to cancer risk and progression.
Another independently investigated aspect of the circadian rhythm is the cortisol awakening response (CAR), which is linked to stress-associated hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activation.
CAR and HPA axis activity are primarily mediated via activation of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR), which drives patterned gene expression via binding to the promotors of glucocorticoid response element (GRE)-expressing genes.
Recent data shows that the GR can be prevented from nuclear translocation by the B cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2)-associated athanogene 1 (BAG-1), which translocates the GR to mitochondria, where it can have diverse effects.
Melatonin also suppresses GR nuclear translocation by maintaining the GR in a complex with heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90). Melatonin, directly and/or epigenetically, can upregulate BAG-1, suggesting that the dramatic 10-fold decrease in pineal melatonin from adolescence to the ninth decade of life will attenuate the capacity of night-time melatonin to modulate the effects of the early morning CAR. The interactions of pineal melatonin/BAG-1/Hsp90 with the CAR are proposed to underpin how aging and circadian dysregulation are associated with cancer risk. This may be mediated via differential effects of melatonin/BAG-1/Hsp90/GR in different cells of microenvironments across the body, from which tumors emerge.
This provides a model of cancer pathogenesis that better integrates previously disparate bodies of data, including how immune cells are regulated by cancer cells in the tumor microenvironment, at least partly via the cancer cell regulation of the tryptophan-melatonin pathway. This has a number of future research and treatment implications.
See also:
- Official Web Site: The Di Bella Method;
- Melatonin use in cancer patients have started in 1974, when melatonin prepared according to Prof. Di Bella’s formulation [...]. For 11 days was administered to the patient, admitted to the general medical ward at the Maggiore-Pizzardi Hospital in Bologna, very slowly (over approx. 8 hours) and intravenously administered 1000 mg of melatonin for 11 days. During the course of each day, the patient was intravenously administered 4 saline drips of 500 ml, each containing ten 25 mg bottles of freeze-dried melatonin, lasting 2 hours, totaling 1000 mg per day. No other drug of any kind was administered in order to ascertain the effect of the MLT without interference [...]. From Melatonin with adenosine solubilized in water and stabilized with glycine for oncological treatment - technical preparation, effectivity and clinical findings;
- About Melatonin - In vitro, review and in vivo publications;
- Publication: Melatonin anticancer effects: Review (from Di Bella's Foundation);
- Publication: Key aspects of melatonin physiology: 30 years of research (from Di Bella's Foundation);
- Solution of retinoids in vitamin E in the Di Bella Method biological multitherapy;
- The Di Bella Method (A Fixed Part - Calcium, 2 grams per day, orally);
- Somatostatin in oncology, the overlooked evidences - In vitro, review and in vivo publications;
- Publication, 2018 Jul: Over-Expression of GH/GHR in Breast Cancer and Oncosuppressor Role of Somatostatin as a Physiological Inhibitor (from Di Bella's Foundation);
- Publication, 2019 Aug: The Entrapment of Somatostatin in a Lipid Formulation: Retarded Release and Free Radical Reactivity (from Di Bella's Foundation);
- Publication, 2019 Sep: Effects of Somatostatin and Vitamin C on the Fatty Acid Profile of Breast Cancer Cell Membranes (from Di Bella's Foundation);
- Publication, 2019 Sep: Effects of somatostatin, curcumin, and quercetin on the fatty acid profile of breast cancer cell membranes (from Di Bella's Foundation);
- Publication, 2020 Sep: Two neuroendocrine G protein-coupled receptor molecules, somatostatin and melatonin: Physiology of signal transduction and therapeutic perspectives (from Di Bella's Foundation);
- The Di Bella Method (A Fixed Part - Bromocriptine and/or Cabergoline);
- Prolactin inhibitors in oncology - In vitro, review and in vivo publications;
- Complete objective response to biological therapy of plurifocal breast carcinoma;
- Pleural Mesothelioma: clinical records on 11 patients treated with Di Bella's Method;
- Malignant pleural mesothelioma, stage T3-T4. Consideration of a case study;
- Neuroblastoma: Complete objective response to biological treatment;
- Large B-cells Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, Stage IV-AE: a Case Report;
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- Oesophageal squamocellular carcinoma: a complete and objective response;
- Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma: clinical records on 17 patients treated with Di Bella's Method;






