They identify genetic variants that protect against migraine

A large-scale genetic study on the biology of migraine has detected genetic variants that protect against this chronic pain disorder, opening a promising path for the development of new drugs against this painful pathology, which affects approximately 20% of adults.

The discovery, published this Thursday in the journal Nature Genetics, is the result of the analysis of genetic data from 1.3 million participants, 80,000 of them diagnosed with migraine, by a team of international scientists, led by the Icelandic biopharmaceutical company deCode Genetics.

Researchers have focused on detecting genetic variants associated with the two main subtypes of this pathology: migraine with aura (also called classic migraine) and migraine without aura.

In total, they have seen 44 genetic variants associated with migraine, 12 of them identified for the first time.

Among the 44, they have observed four new associations of genetic variants with migraine with aura and 13 variants associated with migraine without aura, indicating that there are several genes that affect one of the migraine subtypes more than the other and opens avenues to better targeted therapeutic developments.

Researchers have delved into the study of three rare genetic variants with large effects that point to different pathologies underlying the different types of migraine, according to the scientific journal.

They have found, for example, a rare variant in the PRRT2 gene associated with a high risk of suffering from migraine with aura and another brain disease, epilepsy, but which does not imply a risk of migraine without aura.

In another gene known to play a key role in pain sensation (SCN11A), scientists have detected pain loss-of-function genetic variants that are associated with protective effects against migraine.

Another rare genetic variant indicates that another gene (KCNK5) confers great protection against severe migraine and cerebral aneurysms, which, in the opinion of the scientists, identifies a common pathway between both diseases and could imply that some cases of early cerebral aneurysms may be misclassified as migraine.

Migraine is one of the most common chronic pain disorders in the world, and although previous genetic studies have led to progress towards more effective medications, they do not always work for different types of migraine.

The scientists participating in this study belong to the Copenhagen Hospital biobank and the Danish Blood Bank; to the HUSK studio in Norway; to the Intermountain Health study in the USA; to the UK Biobank; to the FinnGen studio in Finland, and to deCODE Genetics in Iceland.