Plasma Levels of CGRP and Expression of Specific microRNAs in Blood Cells of Episodic and Chronic Migraine Subjects

Migraine can manifest with an episodic or chronic pattern in a continuum of disease severity. Multiple factors are associated to the transformation of the pattern form episodic to chronic. Of these, the most consistently reported is the overuse of medications (MO) for the acute treatment of attacks. Knowledge of the mechanisms through which MO facilitates the transformation of episodic migraine (EM) into chronic migraine (CM) is very limited. In order insights into these mechanisms, the present study was aimed at identifying possible peripheral biomarkers associated to the 2 forms of migraine and to the presence of MO. The investigators evaluated CGRP plasma levels and the expression of miR-34a-5p and miR-382-5p in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of subjects with episodic migraine (EM, n=27) and CM-MO (n=28). CM-MO group was also tested 2 months after an in-hospital detoxification protocol.