The megrim — a plebeian but debilitating mastermind disorder characterized by spartan headaches , often with accompany nausea and optical auras — has perplexed neurologists for 10 . There are so many types of migraine , and each someone ’s physiology respond differently to the few drug and treatments usable .
In the Richard Morris Hunt for an umbrella drug to treat all megrim , researchers at the University of British Colombia have inquire a likely new treatment formigraine with atmosphere , which affects about one - third of migraine sufferers : pregabalin ( brand name Lyrica ) . In a class of drugs called gabapentinoids , pregabalinis an antiepileptic drug used to treat epilepsy , neuropathic hurting , and fibromyalgia . The researchers published theirresultstoday inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences(PNAS ) .
megrim begin in the brain before they ’re ever visualized as an glory or felt as an intense headache . researcher think migraines are activate by a wit radiation diagram known as corticalspreading depression , or SD . Though triggers can be numerous , the Mount Rushmore State starts in the mastermind as a “ depolarization of neurons in a particular area of the brain , ” Stuart Cain , pencil lead author and a neurophysiologist at University of British Columbia , Vancouver tells mental_floss . “ This causes a wave of excitation that travels across the brain . ”
After the excitation geological period , there ’s a prospicient period of time of inactivity in which the nerve cell become stuck in this motionless nation . “ It ’s this waving of inactivity that is actually causing open depression , and that causes the hemicrania aura , ” he explain . Though the chemical mechanism are still not fully understood , they also believe this Mount Rushmore State trigger the trigeminal nerve , one of the mostwidely parcel out nervesin the drumhead . That is what causes the concern pain .
As the SD travels lento through the nous , it may go into the visual cortex and stimulate optic hallucinations , or even the auditory cerebral mantle , causing audile hallucination . In veritable mouse , the Mount Rushmore State is constrained to the cortex , known as cortical spread depression , which is typical migraine without aura . But in the mutant mice they used for the discipline , genetically modified to exhibit in high spirits susceptibility to the familial hemiplegic migraine ( FHM ) gene , FHM-1 , which are link with migraines accompanied by a visual atmosphere , the SD enters the subcortical structures of the hippocampus , causing this type of migraine .
sick headache , stroke , and epilepsy are all known ascalcium channel disorders ; among other thing , calcium channels play a theatrical role in cell depolarization and excitability . The FHM-1 patients have mutations in the P2 voltage - gated calcium line . Pregabalin has been evince in late studies to stick to to thealpha-2 delta subunitof voltage - gated calcium channel , modulating the amount of calcium coming into the cell through this television channel . When pregabalin inhibits the calcium , it also suppresses SD , which can stop sick headache from starting .
To essay the effects of pregabalin on the mutant mice , the research worker anesthetized the black eye and make migraine through engraft carbon fiber electrodes in the occipital pallium . Then , they injected them with a dose of pregabalin mixed with saline . ( Humans would take an oral battery-acid . )
“ Mice have very fast metabolism , so you ca n’t hold off too long , ” Cain says . So 45 minute later on , they took eight successive look-alike slices using a exceptional form of MRI known as “ dissemination weight ” MRI or “ DW - MRI ” over 13 moment to track the SD in the mouse brains . “ When South Dakota occur , the brain cells puff up , and this change the brightness of intensity on the MRI image . So we can view it as a movie travel through the brain , ” Cain pronounce .
As they theorized , the pregabalin did indeed have an effect on SD . It slow down the speed and intensiveness of the Coyote State undulation . It also serve enlighten up a interrogation brain doctor have had about whether SD ever goes into the cerebellum , a social organisation in the very back of the mentality that verify motion . “ We were unrestrained to see if the SD went into that social structure in mutant mouse , but it never did , so that was quite a big determination for the field , " he order . " We now recognise thatataxia[a loss of voluntary muscle control ] has nothing to do with SD . ”
While they ca n’t play this same sketch design in human test , since that would need inserting electrode into the brainpower , they do have architectural plan to mix MRI diagnostics with administration of pregabalin to attempt to meliorate outcomes for migraine patients . Cain is optimistic about the drug ’s possibilities . “ What the study testify is that more clinical trial are by all odds warranted so we can in good order validate its use for migraines , ” he says .
For migraine patients , any new treatment in the alreadylimited arsenalmay bring promise .
