Changhong Li

Sleep disorders are a group of conditions that affect the ability to sleep well on a regular basis and cause significant impairments in social and occupational functions. Although currently approved medications are efficacious, they are far from satisfactory. Benzodiazepines, antidepressants, antihistamines and anxiolytics have the potential for dependence and addiction. Moreover, some of these medications can gradually impair cognition. Melatonin (N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine) is an endogenous hormone produced by the pineal gland and released exclusively at night. Exogenous melatonin supplementation is well tolerated and has no obvious short- or long-term adverse effects. Melatonin has been shown to synchronize the circadian rhythms, and improve the onset, duration and quality of sleep. It is centrally involved in anti-oxidation, circadian rhythmicity maintenance, sleep regulation and neuronal survival. This narrative review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of various therapeutic functions of melatonin in insomnia, sleep-related breathing disorders, hypersomnolence, circadian rhythm sleep–wake disorders and parasomnias. Melatonin offers an alternative treatment to the currently available pharmaceutical therapies for sleep disorders with significantly less side effects.

BACKGROUND: Dehydrodiisoeugenol (DEH), a novel lignan component extracted from nutmeg, which is the seed of Myristica fragrans Houtt, displays noticeable anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic effects in digestive system diseases. However, the mechanism of its anticancer activity in gastrointestinal cancer remains to be investigated. METHODS: In this study, the anticancer effect of DEH on human colorectal cancer and its underlying mechanism were evaluated. Assays including MTT, EdU, Plate clone formation, Soft agar, Flow cytometry, Electron microscopy, Immunofluorescence and Western blotting were used in vitro. The CDX and PDX tumor xenograft models were used in vivo. RESULTS: Our findings indicated that treatment with DEH arrested the cell cycle of colorectal cancer cells at the G1/S phase, leading to significant inhibition in cell growth. Moreover, DEH induced strong cellular autophagy, which could be inhibited through autophagic inhibitors, with a rction in the DEH-induced inhibition of cell growth in colorectal cancer cells. Further analysis indicated that DEH also induced endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and subsequently stimulated autophagy through the activation of PERK/eIF2α and IRE1α/XBP-1 s/CHOP pathways. Knockdown of PERK or IRE1α significantly decreased DEH-induced autophagy and retrieved cell viability in cells treated with DEH. Furthermore, DEH also exhibited significant anticancer activities in the CDX- and PDX-models. CONCLUSIONS: Collectively, our studies strongly suggest that DEH might be a potential anticancer agent against colorectal cancer by activating ER stress-induced inhibition of autophagy.

OBJECTIVE: Investigating functional specialization is crucial for a complete understanding of the neural mechanisms of primary insomnia (PI). Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a useful tool to explore the functional specialization of PI. However, only a few studies have focused on the functional specialization of PI using resting-state fMRI and results of these studies were far from consistent. Thus, the current study aimed to investigate functional specialization of PI using resting-state fMRI with amplitude of low frequency fluctuations (ALFFs) algorithm. METHODS: In this study, 55 PI patients and 44 healthy controls were included. ALFF values were compared between the two groups using two-sample t-test. The relationship of abnormal ALFF values with clinical characteristics and duration of insomnia was investigated using Pearson's correlation analysis. RESULTS: PI patients showed lower ALFF values in the left orbitofrontal cortex/inferior frontal gyrus, right middle frontal gyrus, left inferior parietal lobule, and bilateral cerebellum posterior lobes, while higher ALFF values in the right middle/inferior temporal that extended to the right occipital lobe. In addition, we found that the duration of PI negatively correlated with ALFF values in the left orbitofrontal cortex/inferior frontal gyrus, and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index score negatively correlated with ALFF values in the left inferior parietal lobule. CONCLUSION: The present study added information to limited studies on functional specialization and provided evidence for hyperarousal hypothesis in PI.