Scientists discover new hereditary risk factors for migraine

Researchers at the University of Helsinki in Finland have discovered new hereditary risk factors for migraine. The results of this study more than tripled the number of known inherited risk factors for the condition.

A total of more than 870,000 people participated in the study, of whom 102,000 had migraine.

Previous studies on the subject have shown that inherited factors contribute significantly to the development of migraine. But scientists are still debating whether the two different types of these headaches, migraine with and without aura, have the same heritable basis.

For the current study, a significant set of genetic data was used for the sake of a full association study. This allowed them to find genetic variants that were more common in those who had migraine in general compared to one of its two main types.

The results of the study confirmed that not only neural but also vascular genetic factors are the causes of migraine. Consequently, migraine can be considered a neurovascular disease. The researchers also noted that new treatments are needed to combat migraine, including the identification of genomic risk regions that contain genes that encode targets for newly created therapies against these severe headaches.

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