Dose assessment of melatonin in sepsis (DAMSEL2) study: pharmacokinetics of two doses of oral melatonin in patients with sepsis

Sepsis is defined as a dysregulated host response to infection and high dose melatonin has been proposed as a treatment due to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. However, there are no data describing the pharmacokinetics of high dose oral melatonin in critically ill patients. We undertook an open label trial to determine tolerance of melatonin administration in these patients and pharmacokinetic analysis, to inform a planned randomised controlled trial. Two cohorts of critically ill patients with sepsis due to community acquired pneumonia received either 20mg or 50mg oral melatonin liquid as a single dose. Blood samples and clinical measures were analysed over the next 24h. Melatonin was well tolerated and there were no adverse events. Pharmacokinetic modelling showed that a semi-physiological model, which incorporates saturable first-pass hepatic extraction, was a good fit for our data. Maximum levels of melatonin were extremely high in patients receiving the 50mg dose and levels of the major metabolite were much lower than expected and not different from those seen after 20mg, suggesting saturation at the higher dose. We conclude that 20mg seems a suitable dose of the liquid melatonin in patients with sepsis. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.