Good news! Hopefully less suffering in the future!
"A team of Danish and US scientists has uncovered a new signalling pathway in the brain, which is linked to migraine attacks with auras – the sensory disturbances like flashing lights in vision or tingling in limbs.
The study, which was done mostly on mice, helps to explain the still poorly understood processes that trigger migraines.
The researchers found cerebrospinal fluid moves aura-causing proteins in one part of the brain to pain receptors in the nervous system, becoming the source of the sharp migraine headache. ..."
From the editor's summary and abstract:
"Editor’s summary
The pathophysiology of migraine remains to be fully elucidated. Cortical spreading depression (CSD), a wave of suppression of brain activity, has been hypothesized to play a main role in triggering headache. However, the mechanism remains elusive. Kaag Rasmussen et al. used rodent models to show that CSD could induce alterations in cerebrospinal fluid proteome, with increased expression of proteins able to activate the trigeminal nerve (see the Perspective by Russo and Iliff). These proteins could reach and activate the trigeminal nerve, thus triggering headache, through a previously unrecognized zone of the trigeminal ganglion lacking epineural sheath. These results identify a route of communication between the central and peripheral nervous systems that is potentially involved in triggering migraine. ...
Abstract
Classical migraine patients experience aura, which is transient neurological deficits associated with cortical spreading depression (CSD), preceding headache attacks. It is not currently understood how a pathological event in cortex can affect peripheral sensory neurons. In this study, we show that cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flows into the trigeminal ganglion, establishing nonsynaptic signaling between brain and trigeminal cells. After CSD, ~11% of the CSF proteome is altered, with up-regulation of proteins that directly activate receptors in the trigeminal ganglion. CSF collected from animals exposed to CSD activates trigeminal neurons in naïve mice in part by CSF-borne calcitonin gene–related peptide (CGRP). We identify a communication pathway between the central and peripheral nervous system that might explain the relationship between migrainous aura and headache."
A new path to migraine (no public access) Cerebrospinal fluid influx directly activates trigeminal neurons in a migraine model
No comments:
Post a Comment