BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Cardiovasc. Med.
Sec. General Cardiovascular Medicine
This article is part of the Research TopicNatural Antioxidants and Cardiovascular Diseases: A Pathway to PreventionView all 4 articles
Acute Myocarditis and Low Melatonin: Unraveling a Potential Link
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, China
- 2Imaging Center, Zhongshan City People’s Hospital, Zhongshan, China
- 3Department of cardiology, Zhongshan City People’s Hospital, Zhongshan, China
- 4Department of Pharmacy, Zhongshan City People’s Hospital, Zhongshan, China
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Background: Acute myocarditis is one of the common causes of sudden cardiac death among young adults. While melatonin has been recognized for its cardioprotective properties, the specific relationship between melatonin and acute myocarditis in humans is not well established. Methods: We collected morning urine samples from 21 patients diagnosed with acute myocarditis and 21 healthy controls to measure the levels of 6-sulfatoxymelatonin (aMT6s), a biomarker of nocturnal melatonin secretion, using an ELISA assay. Results: The mean age of the control group was 31.05±9.75 years, and the acute myocarditis group had a mean age of 30.71±10.11 years. Both groups were evenly divided by gender, with 15 males and 6 females in each. Acute myocarditis patients exhibited significantly lower aMT6s levels (50.57 ± 36.39 ng/mL) compared with healthy volunteers (80.36 ± 48.92 ng/mL; P = 0.031). Similarly, the aMT6s-to-creatinine ratio was reduced in patients (106.95 ± 73.45 ng/mg cr) versus controls (159.73 ± 92.96 ng/mg cr; P = 0.048). Conclusion: Lower melatonin levels, measured via urinary aMT6s concentrations in acute myocarditis patients, suggest a link to the disease process.
Keywords: 6-Sulphatoxymelatonin, Cardioprotection, markers, Melatonin, Myocarditis
Received: 21 Feb 2025; Accepted: 19 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Wang, Long, Sun, Li and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Wenyuan Zhang
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