Researchers have linked more than 30 DNA variants to the onset of migraines, a discovery that could improve the treatment for one of the most debilitating and common disorders worldwide.
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Migraine is the third most common disorder and is characterised by recurrent attacks of debilitating headaches.
Most sufferers of migraines are healthy people between episodes that makes the disorder, that ranks seventh most disabling of diseases worldwide, difficult to identify and treat.
A research team, jointly led by QUT's Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation associate professor Dale Nyholt, set out to compare eight million DNA variants of 60,000 migraine patients to 316,000 controls drawn from 22 different genomic studies to better understand what genetic variations specifically caused migraines.
Dr Nyholt said the team discovered 44 DNA variants associated with migraine risk, a discovery that could help to improve treatment for the disorder.
"The exact causes of migraine are unknown and there are no recognisable, diagnostic, pathological changes, however, twin and family studies indicate that migraine has a significant genetic component," he said.
"We don't know what the biology is and what is triggering migraine headaches but we know genetics are involved.
"We were looking for if a particular DNA variant that was more common in migraine cases compared to controlled groups.
"This gives us biological insight and we can then look at groups to see if we can target this specific pathway then we can have a better treatment."
DNA variants affect the levels of proteins and enzymes in a gene expression and Dr Nyholt said that by recognising those variants specific to migraine disorders, pharmaceuticals could be developed to re-adjust those levels to lower people's chances of having a migraine attack.
"This gives us insight into what pathways are associated with migraines," he said.
"It is an episodic disorder and so the main reason we are looking at these genetic risk factors is to look at biological insight, if a specific gene is involved then we could maybe target pharmaceutical drugs to ease migraines."
Dr Nyholt said existing treatments such as Triptans only worked for about 40 per cent of sufferers and hoped this research, combined with an awareness of their environmental triggers such as stress, lack of sleep or food groups, could lower the severity of attacks.
"It is very neglected because people don't die from it and there is a conception that people can just take pain relief but that is not true for a large amount of migraine suffers," he said.
"What we really need is more and better pharmaceuticals nd the only way to get that is to learn about the biology.
"It won't happen overnight, but if we find that a particular pathway for which pharmaceuticals already exist, there is the opportunity to re-purpose those pharmaceuticals.
"The hope is that over the next coming years because of this new knowledge, we will be able to repurpose or set down the road of producing new pharmaceuticals."
Dr Nyholt said the majority of DNA variants discovered were also linked to poor blood vessel function that indicated vascular dysfunction was the primary mechanism underlying the migraine.
"There is a long-running debate about whether migraine is a disorder of vascular dysfunction, or a result of brain dysfunction with secondary vascular changes." he said.
"The genes we are finding associated with migraines are involved with vascular function, they are involved in blood vessels.
"That points to vascular changes that we are seeing as one of the primary mechanisms, not a secondary side effect."
This study was published in Nature Genetics.
