Worms Reveal How Melatonin Works in the Brain to Promote Sleep

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Caennorhabditis elegans Worm

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The Caennorhabditis elegans worm’s nerve cells revealing the receptor for melatonin radiance green. Credit: Bojun Chen/UConn Health

Research in C. elegans demonstrates how melatonin triggers the BK channel in the brain.

Melatonin is utilized as a dietary supplement to promote sleep and overcome jet lag, however no one actually comprehends how it operates in the brain. Now, scientists at UConn Health reveal that melatonin assists worms sleep, too, and they think they’ve determined what it performs in us.

Our bodies produce melatonin in darkness. It’s technically a hormonal agent, however you can easily purchase melatonin as a supplement in drug stores, nutrition shops, and other retail stores. It’s commonly utilized by grownups and frequently in kids too.

Melatonin binds to melatonin receptors in the brain to produce its sleep-promoting results. Think of a receptor as a keyhole, and melatonin as the secret. The 2 keyholes for melatonin are called MT1 and MT2 in human brain cells. But researchers didn’t actually understand what takes place when the keyhole is opened. Now UConn Health School of Medicine neuroscientists Zhao-Wen Wang and Bojun Chen and their associates have actually determined that procedure through their deal with C. elegans worms, as reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. When melatonin suits the MT1 receptor in the worm’s brain, it opens a potassium channel called the BK channel.

A significant function of the BK channel in nerve cells is to restrict the release of neurotransmitters, which are chemical compounds utilized by nerve cells to talk with each other. In their look for aspects associated with the BK channel, the Wang and Chen laboratories discovered that a melatonin receptor is required for the BK channel to restrict neurotransmitter release. They consequently discovered that melatonin promotes sleep in worms by triggering the BK channel through the melatonin receptor. Worms that do not have either melatonin secretion, the melatonin receptor, or the BK channel invest less time in sleep.

But wait — worms sleep?

Indeed they do, states Chen. There’s really been rather a great deal of research study on worm sleep, and scientists discovered that sleep is comparable in between worms and mammals like human beings and mice.

Wang and Chen next strategy to see if the melatonin-MT1-BK relationship keeps in mice. The BK channel is associated with all sort of physical happenings, from epilepsy to hypertension. By discovering more about the relationships in between the BK channel, sleep, and behavioral modifications, the scientists hope both to comprehend melatonin much better and likewise assist individuals who experience other illness associated with the BK channel.

Reference: “Melatonin promotes sleep by triggering the BK channel in C. elegans” by Longgang Niu, Yan Li, Pengyu Zong, Ping Liu, Yuan Shui, Bojun Chen and Zhao-Wen Wang, 21 September 2020, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2010928117