Fresh Target in Hunt for a Migraine Cure

For those of you who suffer from Migraines such as I do, the WSJ has a piece in which they discuss a new avenue that researchers are exploring for treatments and the development of new drugs to attack this debilitating illness.

• Of greatest focus for researchers is a brain chemical known as CGRP, which appears to play a role in the transmission of pain, but not in other brain functions, such as cognition or mood. Researchers are trying a variety of experimental drugs to stop CGRP from working by blocking its receptors in the brain. Others are working on artificial antibodies that could soak up the chemical in the bloodstream or brain before it can trigger migraines.
• "People need migraine drugs that have a rapid onset of action, that take the pain away and keep it away," says Richard Lipton, director of the Montefiore Headache Center in New York.

• Why they occur still isn't clear, but specialists say they have recently begun to understand the migraine as a brain disorder and not a vascular disorder. Until about 12 years ago, they were believed to stem from constriction of blood vessels in the brain. The dilation of the vessels to compensate then led to the throbbing pain, so the thinking went.