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 Migraines have long been more common in people of European descent
than those from Africa, and both genetics and environment are
thought to play a role. For the current study, researchers focused
on TRPM8, a gene involved in regulating the ability to detect cold
that's also associated with vulnerability to migraines.
Researchers discovered that a genetic variant upstream from this
gene, which may regulate it, became increasingly common in
populations living in cold climates. For example, 88 percent of
people of Finnish ancestry carry the variant, compared with just 5
percent of people of Nigerian ancestry.
"The direct link between cold sensation and migraine is unknown;
however, both are related to pain which provides a possible, but
speculative, link," said lead study author Felix Key of the Max
Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Leipzig,
Germany.
Within the last 50,000 years, some humans left the warm climate of
Africa to colonize colder locales in Asia, Europe, and other parts
of the world, researchers note in PLoS Genetics. Genetic adaptations
to help humans respond to cold temperatures may have helped people
survive this migration.
The gene TRPM8 helps control the only known receptor that enables
people to detect and respond to cold temperatures. Variants found in
people whose ancestors lived in cold climates thousands of years ago
might help shut off or reduce the ability to detect cold or feel
pain from the cold.
The researchers found that a variant of this gene became
increasingly common in populations living in higher latitudes and
colder climates during the past 25,000 years.
While this gene has been linked to migraines in previous research,
the current study authors speculate that adaptation to cold
temperatures in early human populations may at least partially
explain the variation in migraine prevalence among different groups
of people.
"Most genetic variants have very similar frequencies across human
populations," said senior study author Aida Andres of University
College London in the UK.
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"So it was surprising that this (variant) is at very low frequency
in some populations, say Yoruba, Nigeria, and very high frequency in
others, for example Finnish in northern Europe," Andres said by
email.
But the exact molecular cause of migraines remains unknown, and even
in populations where most people are of northern European descent,
only about 10 to 15 percent suffer from migraines, said Andy Weyer,
a researcher at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon, who
wasn't involved in the study.
"Just because a person's DNA contains this variant does not mean
that they will suffer from migraines," Weyer said by email.
While drugmakers are currently exploring whether it's possible to
develop migraine medicines that work by targeting TRPM8, the current
study findings won't change how people are currently treated for
these headaches, Weyer added.
People may manage migraines by trying to avoid triggers like stress,
lack of sleep or poor diet that can make the headaches more likely.
Some patients may also take painkillers or antidepressants for acute
migraines.
Cold is can be a trigger, noted Greg Dussor, a researcher at the
University of Texas at Dallas who wasn't involved in the study.
"Stressors, or deviations from normal patterns, seem to be triggers
for migraine attacks and exposure to cold is a stressor that the
body doesn't like," Dussor said by email. "The migraine might be a
warning sign that the stressor, in this case cold, could be
dangerous and the person should protect themself from the
temperature."
SOURCE: https://bit.ly/2Kw2Hps PLoS Genetics, online May 3, 2018.
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