Melatonin suppresses Akt/mTOR/S6K activity, induces cell apoptosis, and synergistically inhibits cell growth with sunitinib in renal carcinoma cells via reversing Warburg effect.

Background: Metabolic alteration drives renal cell carcinoma (RCC) development, while the impact of melatonin (MLT), a neurohormone secreted during darkness, on RCC cell growth and underlying mechanisms remains unclear.

Methods: We detected concentration of metabolites through metabolomic analyses using UPLC-MS/MS, and the oxygen consumption rate was determined using the Seahorse Extracellular Flux analyzer.

Results: We observed that MLT effectively inhibited RCC cell growth both in vitro and in vivo.