Scientists have discovered genes that may be behind migraines, “opening the door to a cure”, reported the Daily Mirror. The newspaper said that these genes normally control the levels of a brain chemical called glutamate, but a variant form of the gene may lead to a build-up of glutamate within the nerve cells. According to the paper, halting this build-up could help stop migraines.
The study behind this story scanned the DNA of several thousand people with and without a history of migraine. It compared their genetics and identified a particular gene variant that was more common in migraine sufferers. The study adds to our understanding of the complex processes that lead to migraines and highlights that there may be genetic causes.
Types of headache
This is important research, but finding genes that are linked to a condition is very different from developing a safe treatment based on this knowledge. Overall, it is premature for newspapers to suggest that this research may soon produce a cure for migraines. Migraine is a complex condition in which the interaction between genes and the environment is likely to be important, meaning there may not be a single cause or cure.
Migraine is an episodic headache disorder that is more common in women. The cause is thought to be related to changes in levels of particular chemicals in the brain and many potential triggers have been identified. These include dietary factors, physical triggers such as poor posture and tiredness, emotional triggers including stress, anxiety and depression, and environmental triggers. Some people also experience migraines after taking certain medications.
This was a genome-wide association (GWA) study which scanned people’s DNA to look for genetic factors that may be involved in migraines. GWA studies are commonly used to investigate whether particular genetic variants (such as mutations in DNA) are associated with certain conditions. The general approach is to assess the DNA sequences of a group of individuals with a condition and compare them to the DNA sequences in a group of unaffected individuals. In this study, researchers set out to identify genetic variants associated with the most common forms of migraine.
The findings of this research increase our understanding of the biochemistry of neurological disorders, and this important study will pave the way for future research. These next research steps should also examine how genetics interact with the environment, as environmental triggers also play a part in the development of migraine.
The developing and testing of drugs can be a long and complicated process. If future studies result in improvements in the treatment of migraine, they are likely to be some way off.
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A new study has claimed that Botox could be instrumental in relieving terrible spinal headaches.
According to the study conducted at Mayo Clinic, Botox can be used in pain management in patients suffering from incapacitating spinal headaches caused by low levels of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).
The successful treatment also offers new insight into Botox and headache treatment generally.
Remarkably, the only known way to alleviate pain, until the discovery of analgesic properties of Botox, was to lie down.
Low CSF pressure headaches are caused by an internal spinal fluid leak.
The headaches are most commonly triggered by a lumbar puncture through which the CSF leaks out causing the brain to sag.
Conventional treatment is known as blood patch, which includes injecting a patch of the patient’s blood over the puncture hole.
Before she sought help five years ago from Michael Cutrer, and Paul Mathew, neurologists at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, the patient in the case study had suffered from low CSF pressure headaches for 25 years.
For most of that time she only felt better while lying down, resulting in curtailment of her day-to-day activities.
The patient has received Botox for three years and the results have been consistently positive.
After every administration of Botox, improvement would last for three months before pain returned, necessitating another dose.
The doctors said that they administered Botox because they had little else to offer to the subject.
The intensity of the patient’s headaches dropped from eight out of 10 on a visual pain scale to three out of 10, “to everybody’s surprise she made a remarkable improvement,” said Cutrer.
While botox cannot eradicate the pain completely it can help the patients to live a relatively normal lives.
The study was recently presented at the American Academy of Neurology meeting in Hawaii.
Children who see flashing lights during a migraine have twice the normal likelihood of having a hole-in-the-heart, a study suggests.
US doctors examined 109 children over six who were migraine sufferers.
About half of those with a type of migraine accompanied by a visual disturbance called an aura had the heart defect, the Journal of Pediatrics reports.
The British Heart Foundation called for further research into the link.
Amy Thompson, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: “There could be a number of explanations for this link so further research needs to be carried out before we draw any firm conclusions.
“Once we understand the relationship in more detail it could signal an improvement in patient care.”
A number of medical studies have found a link in adults between a hole-in-the-heart – known technically as a patent foramen ovale (PFO) – and migraine with aura.
This has lead to attempts to treat migraine by surgery to close the hole, when other migraine therapies have failed.
Dr Rachel McCandless and colleagues of the University of Utah used a scanning technique known as an echocardiogram to look for the heart defect.
Of the children who had migraines with aura, 50% also had the defect. This is nearly double the rate seen in the general population.
She said she hoped “our study will help guide future research about this difficult problem”.
Around one in 10 people have aura with their migraines.
Common aura symptoms include visual disturbances such as seeing flashing or flickering lights, numbness, tingling sensations and slurred speech.