United States: Scientists have uncovered a new brain pathway that triggers migraines, offering potential for new treatments.
Migraines affect about one in ten people worldwide, with 25% experiencing sensory disturbances, or aura, before the headache. This discovery could lead to innovative drugs for treating migraines.
It has been already known that a wave of brain activity suppression is behind the terrible pain of migraines but he exact mechanism has remained elusive.
Breakthrough Reveals Mechanism Behind Migraine Aura
As reported in Independent, the new study has been published in the journal science and explained how the fluid flow in the brain and a spreading wave of the signal disruption triggers the migraines and induces the aura and surroundings.
Researchers from the University of Rochester in the US said the findings may serve as a foundation for a new class of migraine drugs.
Potential for New Migraine Drugs
“These findings provide us with a host of new targets to suppress sensory nerve activation to prevent and treat migraines and strengthen existing therapies,” study co-author Maiken Nedergaard said.
Scientists have known that the aura is caused when there is reduced oxygen levels and impaired blood flow in a section of the brain.
This happens when the brain cells are depolarised for some time due to the diffusion of some charged molecules like glutamate and potassium and this particular disruption can radiate like a wave and when it affects the brain’s vision processing centre it causes visual symptoms such as the aura before a coming headache.
Hope for Better Treatments for Migraine Sufferers
Researchers found a new route by which these signals travel.
They hope their discovery of how nerves in this route are activated can lead to new drug targets. “Among the identified molecules are those already associated with migraines, but we didn’t know exactly how and where the migraine inducing action occurred,” Martin Kaag Rasmussen, another author of the study, said.
Scientists hope the newly identified potential drug targets may benefit a large number of patients who do not respond to available migraine therapies.