Migraine sufferers may be forgiven for mouthing the words “promises, promises” when reports of yet another promising new drug to treat their condition crop up in the news. Perhaps what is most promising about the new medication is that it works in an entirely novel way to alleviate migraine symptoms. Not only that, two thirds of the test subjects who were given the drug experienced some kind of pain relief due to its effects.
Current versus New
The current drug family of choice for treating migraines is the triptans. The new medication will be targeted, at least initially, to patients who don’t respond to triptans or who don’t tolerate triptan-based therapy for one reason or another.
For the time being the new medication will go by the name MK-0974. Researchers anticipate that upwards of 30 per cent of migraine sufferers may be helped by the drug–perhaps even more if it proves to be more effective than nay other medication.
This type of drug is called and investigational oral calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) receptor antagonist. Peptides have long been suspected of playing a significant role in migraine episodes.
The experimental drug relieved moderate-to-severe migraine attacks, including migraine pain and migraine-associated symptoms, compared to a placebo.
What is even more promising is that adverse effects in the trial were similar between the drug and a placebo. These data were presented at the European Headache and Migraine Trust International Congress in London. Comprehensive testing has not been finalized.
What “peptide (CGRP) receptor antagonist” means is that the drug blocks CGRP. If CGRP is blocked the usual pain that accompanies the release of the neuropeptide doesn’t occur or is much less severe.
By contrast triptans utilize an entirely different brain chemical called serotonin to alleviate migraine symptoms. The net effect of triptan administration is that blood vessels are constricted. Constricting blood vessels during a migraine episode helps to minimize migraine symptoms–in particular the headache that can make a migraine a close to intolerable experience.
One of the problems with triptans, however, is that they are contraindicated for patients with heart trouble or other related circulatory diseases. This is owing to the constricting effect of triptans on the blood vessels.
Another advantage of the new drug is that early trials seem to indicate that it has “a very good duration of action” according to one researcher. In studies that compared it to a triptan based medication 50 per cent of patients who took MK-0974 reported being pain-free for two hours, compared with only 33 per cent of those who took the triptan-based drug.
Over the course of 24 hours an impressive 40 per cent of patients who took the new drug remained pain free while only about 20 per cent of patients given the older medication could claim to be free of migraine pain.
More tests need to be done. In the past promising migraine treatments have been shelved when experiments indicated that other parts of the body, such as the liver, were affected adversely by the drugs being tested.
It is to be hoped that eventually some, or at least some more, migraine sufferers may find relief thanks to ongoing research.