Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Spreading depression: from serendipity to targeted therapy in migraine prophylaxis

CURRENT REVIEW: CLINICAL SCIENCE
Spreading depression: from serendipity to targeted therapy in migraine prophylaxis
C Ayata
Stroke and Neurovascular Regulation Laboratory, Department of Radiology, and Stroke Service and Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Correspondence to Cenk Ayata, 149 13th Street, Room 6408, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA. e-mail: cayata@partners.org
Cephalalgia. Volume 29 Issue 10, Pages 1095 - 1114

Published Online: 7 Sep 2009

Copyright © 2009 International Headache Society

ABSTRACT

Despite the relatively well-characterized headache mechanisms in migraine, upstream events triggering individual attacks are poorly understood. This lack of mechanistic insight has hampered a rational approach to prophylactic drug discovery. Unlike targeted abortive and analgesic interventions, mainstream migraine prophylaxis has been largely based on serendipitous observations (e.g. propranolol) and presumed class effects (e.g. anticonvulsants). Recent studies suggest that spreading depression is the final common pathophysiological target for several established or investigational migraine prophylactic drugs. Building on these observations, spreading depression can now be explored for its predictive utility as a preclinical drug screening paradigm in migraine prophylaxis.


DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER (DOI)
10.1111/j.1468-2982.2009.01982.x

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