Although T. cruzi was identified as the cause of Chagas disease more than 100 years ago, satisfactory treatments still do not exist, especially for chronic disease. Here we review work suggesting that melatonin could have promise as a Chagas therapeutic. Melatonin has remarkably diverse actions. It is an immunomodulator, an anti-inflammatory, an antioxidant, a free radical scavenger, and has antiapoptotic and anti-aging effects. The elderly (aged 60 years or more) as a group are growing faster than any other age group. Here we discuss the major effects and the mechanisms of action of melatonin on aged T. cruzi-infected rats. Melatonin's protective effects may be consequences of its cooperative antioxidant and immunomodulatory actions. Melatonin modulates oxidative damage, inducing an antioxidant response and reversing age-related thymus regression. Its protective actions could be the result of its anti-apoptotic activity, and by its counteracting the excessive production of corticosterone. This review describes our work showing that host age plays an important and variable influence on the progression of systemic T. cruzi infection and supporting the hypothesis that melatonin should be considered as a powerful therapeutic compound with multiple activities that can improve host homeostasis during experimental T. cruzi infection.

中文翻译：

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老年大鼠中的克氏锥虫感染：褪黑激素是一种有前途的治疗分子。

尽管100多年前已将克鲁维氏杆菌（T. cruzi）查明为南美锥虫病的病因，但仍不存在令人满意的治疗方法，特别是对于慢性疾病。在这里，我们回顾了暗示褪黑激素可以作为南美锥虫治疗剂的前景的工作。褪黑素具有明显不同的作用。它是一种免疫调节剂，抗炎剂，抗氧化剂，自由基清除剂，并具有抗凋亡和抗衰老作用。一组老年人（60岁或以上）的成长速度快于其他任何年龄组。在这里，我们讨论褪黑激素对老年克鲁格氏菌感染大鼠的主要作用及其作用机制。褪黑激素的保护作用可能是其协同抗氧化剂和免疫调节作用的结果。褪黑素调节氧化损伤，诱导抗氧化反应并逆转与年龄有关的胸腺退化。它的保护作用可能是其抗凋亡活性的结果，并且可以抵消皮质酮的过量产生。这篇综述描述了我们的工作，表明宿主年龄对全身性克鲁维丝菌感染的进展具有重要且可变的影响，并支持以下假设：褪黑激素应被视为具有多种活性的强大治疗化合物，可以改善实验性T宿主的体内稳态。克鲁兹感染。