London - One of the secrets of migraines has been unlocked by a scientist who resolved to find a cure for the condition when it struck her down as a child.
Emily Bates has discovered a gene that could lead to new and better treatments for the unpredictable and pounding headaches that blight the lives of millions.
As a teenager, she had her schoolwork and athletics training disrupted by migraines.
Now a 36-year-old professor of chemistry, she said: “I had migraines really frequently and severely. I would lose my vision, vomit uncontrollably – it would wipe out an entire day.
“I decided then as a high school student that I was going to work on migraines, that I was going to figure them out and help find a cure.”
Professor Bates, of Brigham Young University in Utah, is part of a team of US scientists who have found the first gene involved in typical migraines.
The scientists first studied the genetics of two families of migraine sufferers. This allowed them to pinpoint a common genetic flaw. To check that the gene is key to migraines, they then studied mice carrying the same genetic fault,
Lead researcher Louis Ptácek, of University of California, San Francisco, said: “Obviously, we can’t measure a headache in a mouse but there are other things that go along with a migraine that we can measure.”
Experiments showed the mice, like people with migraines, to be extra-sensitive to pain, touch, sound and light.
The mutant mice were also more prone to a pattern of brain waves linked to the flashing lights or other visual problems that can precede a migraine.
Giving the mice migraine drugs seemed to ease some of their symptoms, the journal Science Translational Medicine reports.
Working out just how the flaw in a gene called casein kinase I delta causes migraines could lead to improved treatments. Professor Ptácek said existing drugs “only help some patients, some of the time”. He added: “This is the first gene in which mutations have been shown to cause a very typical form of migraine. It’s our initial glimpse into a black box that we don’t yet understand.
“As we come to a clearer understanding, we can start to think about better therapies. The need for better treatments is huge.”
Peter Goadsby, a professor of neurology and medical trustee of the Migraine Trust in the UK, described the work as an “exciting new development in understanding migraine”.
Professor Andrew Charles, a researcher from the University of California, Los Angeles, said: “There simply hasn’t been enough attention paid to migraine as a major cause of disability worldwide. Compared to other common medical problems relatively little research has been done on the cause of migraine and its potential treatments.
“We desperately need a better understanding of the condition and new treatments so that we are better able to help these many people whose lives are devastated by the disorder.”
It is hoped the gene, which is also involved in the control of sleep, will also shed light on links between sleeping too much and too little and the onset of migraines.
Migraines feature in the World Health Organisation’s top 20 most disabling lifetime conditions and affect one in four women and one in 12 men. - Daily Mail