Potential Therapeutic Approach of Melatonin against Omicron and Some Other Variants of SARS-CoV-2

Abstract

The Omicron variant (B.529) of COVID-19 caused disease outbreaks worldwide because of its contagious and diverse mutations. To reduce these outbreaks, therapeutic drugs and adjuvant vaccines have been applied for the treatment of the disease. However, these drugs have not shown high efficacy in reducing COVID-19 severity, and even antiviral drugs have not shown to be effective. Researchers thus continue to search for an effective adjuvant therapy with a combination of drugs or vaccines to treat COVID-19 disease. We were motivated to consider melatonin as a defensive agent against SARS-CoV-2 because of its various unique properties. Over 200 scientific publications have shown the significant effects of melatonin in treating diseases, with strong antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory effects. Melatonin has a high safety profile, but it needs further clinical trials and experiments for use as a therapeutic agent against the Omicron variant of COVID-19. It might immediately be able to prevent the development of severe symptoms caused by the coronavirus and can reduce the severity of the infection by improving immunity.

Keywords

• Omicron variant (B.529)
• COVID-19 disease
• SARS-CoV-2
• oxidative stress
• melatonin
• antioxidant