Science identified 38 new genetic causes of migraine

An international consortium of scientists has identified 38 genetic variants that can cause migraine -28 of them completely new-, which is the major finding of the causes of this disease made so far.

The results of the study, conducted by researchers at centers in Spain, United States, Norway, Finland, Denmark or Germany, are published Tuesday in Nature Genetics.

For the study the genome of 375,000 individuals in the United States, Australia and Europe, 60,000 of them with migraine compared.

Migraine is a disorder that affects one billion people worldwide (15-20% of the world population), mostly women.

This disorder, highly disabling, causing headaches, nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to light and noise, and in the most severe cases causes temporary paralysis of half body.

Despite its high-a frequency of every seven people in the world sufre-, the causes of migraine are still "very unknown," biologist told Efe Research Institute of Vall d'Hebron Hospital in Barcelona (northeast Spain), Ester Cuenca-Leon, one of the researchers.

"The study is important because it will help to complete the genetic map of the different forms of migraine, to define the genetic mechanisms underlying this disorder and find treatments to combat the causes, not just the symptoms," said the researcher.

So far they had identified some genetic variants (alterations in a letter of a gene) forms of rare migraine, those produced by mutation of a single gene and are given "in less than one person in a thousand" he said Efe Cormand Bru, researcher at the University of Barcelona and member of the International Consortium for Genetics of Migraines.

"This is the case of hemiplegic migraine, for example, which causes paralysis of half the body and is caused by a single gene in each family."

However, to be caused by a single gene and be much more rare, genetic cause of this kind of migraine has been "easily identifiable" adds Cuenca-Leon.

In the case of common migraine, however, the genetic map of this disease is much more varied.

"Common migraine has a complex genetic basis and polygenic, ie to suffer the disorder that must be several altered genes. It is the sum of each of these changes which ultimately leads to migraine, "according Cormand, a member of the Center for Biomedical Network Research on Rare Diseases (Ciberer).

In fact, the researcher adds, "it is possible that the full genetic landscape of migraine contains more than one hundred genes."

Thanks to the huge sample of this study (375,000 individuals), researchers have been able to perform a meta-analysis has identified 38 genetic variants associated with migraine, 28 of which had not been described before, and twelve were discovered in several previous jobs.

"Previous studies were performed with relatively few individuals but now with many more patients, we could detect more than double, 28 completely unknown so far," says the biologist.

The study is important because it reopens the debate on whether this disease is neuronal or vascular, because "most of the genes have now found in common migraine regulate the vascular system, while in the most severe and rare forms damage first it is in the brain, "according Cuenca-Leon.

And for the first time, the study determined that the genes that cause common migraine and predisposing the rarest forms of this disease "are completely different," says Cormand.

The work will not only help to better understand the origin of migraine, but will be useful for the medium term, more personalized treatments and appropriate to the patient, both researchers agree.