Melatonin and its bioisosteres as potential therapeutic agents for the treatment of retinopathy of prematurity

We conducted a study on the impact of intraperitoneal injections of melatonin and its three bioisosteres (compounds 1-3) on the development of oxygen-induced retinopathy in newborn rats during a 21-day experiment. It was demonstrated that melatonin and its analogues 1-3 effectively reduce the total protein concentration in the vitreous body of rat pups, decrease concentration of VEGF-A, and lower the level of oxidative stress (as indicated by normalization of antioxidant activity in the vitreous body). Melatonin and its analogues 1-3 equally normalize the level of VEGF-A. Analogues 1 and 2 even exceed melatonin in their ability to reduce protein influx into the vitreous body. However, analogue 2 had no effect on antioxidant activity, while analogues 1 and 3 caused a significant increase in this parameter, with analogue 3 even slightly exceeding melatonin. Thus, it can be concluded that analogues 1-3 are comparable to melatonin and can be utilized as potential therapeutic agents for the treatment of retinopathy of prematurity. Administration of melatonin and 3 its bioisosters efficiently normalize VEGF-A and total protein levels and antioxidant activity in vitreous body of newborn rat pups (in oxygen-induced retinopathy model). Novel melatonin analogues could be used as new metabolically stable therapeutic agents for the treatment of retinopathy of prematurity.image