Researchers Found Potential Migraine Pain Source in the Brain

Researchers Found Potential Migraine Pain Source in the Brain
Researchers Found Potential Migraine Pain Source in the Brain

United States: Scientists have pinpointed a communication conduit that relays signals from various parts of the brain, skull, and body, which could serve as a new treatment target.

Researchers have long sought to locate the brain region where migraines originate and to understand the pain mechanism and related symptoms like vomiting.

This knowledge could help prevent migraine pain or minimize its severity.

About Migraine Pain

One-third of migraine sufferers first experience blurry vision, indicating abnormal brain activity spreading through the cortex, the brain’s outer layer. This activity affects receptors on brain-sensing neurons, which remain somewhat unclear.

The brain is covered by a protective layer, acting as a brain barrier, keeping the potentially harmful elements from entering the central nervous system (CNS).

The key nerve hub linking the CNS to the peripheral nervous system is the trigeminal ganglion, located at the base of the skull, sending sensory information from the face and jaws to the brain.

New Study Findings

The study on mice revealed that cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) carries signaling molecules directly to cells in the trigeminal ganglion, bypassing a slower route through the meninges.

According to University of Copenhagen biologist Martin Kaag Rasmussen and colleagues, while explaining their study, “We identify a communication pathway between the central and peripheral nervous system that might explain the relationship between migrainous aura and headache,” as sciencealert.com reported.

They also found that the constituents of the animals’ CSF were changed after the blurry vision symptom began.

Rasmussen and colleagues said, “Our observations indicate that the trigeminal CSF uptake drives the immediate migraine headache,” and, however, “we also found that CSF composition quickly normalizes, suggesting that other processes might drive headache at later phases.”

Hope for New Treatments

Researchers now hope that, since they have successfully identified this signal pathway, which “may enable the discovery of new [drug] targets, to the benefit of the large portion of patients not responding well to currently available therapies.”

Moreover, neuroscientists Andrew Russo of the University of Iowa and Jeffrey Iliff at the University of Washington noted, “Together, these findings provide a new mechanism that links the central and peripheral nervous systems,” as sciencealert.com.

“Similarly, this mechanism may explain the intermingled clinical associations between traumatic brain injury, sleep disruption, and posttraumatic headache,” he continued.