Migraines are one of practice of medicine ’s most frustrative mysteries , both lawsuit and treatments . Now research worker believe they ’ve solved one part of the mystifier : a protein affect by fluctuating estrogen levels may explicate why more women suffer from migraine than men .
Migraines are thethird most commonillness in the reality , move more than 1 in 10 people . Some 75 percent of martyr are women , who also go through them more ofttimes and more intensely , and do n’t respond as well to drug treatment as military man do .
At this year’sExperimental Biologymeeting in San Diego , researcher Emily Galloway lay out newfindingson the connection between the protein NHE1 and the development of migraine headaches . NHE1 mold the transferral of protons and sodium ion across cell membranes , include the membranes that separate incoming blood flow from the brain .
When NHE1 levels are low-down or the molecule is n’t work as it ’s suppose to , migraine - level head infliction can ensue . And because unorthodox NHE1 disrupts the flow of protons and sodium ions to the Einstein , medications like pain slayer have bother crossing the blood line - brainiac barrier as well . This may explain why the condition is so difficult to process .
When the research worker analyzed NHE1 levels in the brains of manly and female lab rat , the investigator regain them to be four times higher in the male person than in the females . Additionally , when estrogen grade were highest in the female specimen , NHE1 story in the blood vessels of their brain were at their down .
Previous research had implicated fluctuating estrogen levels in migraines , but the mechanism behind it has remain elusive . The new finding could deepen the way migraines are studied and treated in the future , which is especially important considering that most migraine studies have focalise on male animate being subjects .
" take research on the molecular mechanisms behind migraine is the first dance step in creating more targeted drug to do by this experimental condition , for men and women , " Galloway say in apress statement . " Knowledge acquire from this workplace could result to substitute for millions of those who suffer from migraines and name individuals who may have better response to specific therapy . "
The new research is part of a broader endeavour to build a molecular map of the relationship between sex hormones and NHE1 expression . The next step is test drugs that influence these hormones to see how they affect NHE1 levels in the brainpower .
