An international consortium of leading migraine scientists identified more than 120 regions of the genome that are connected to risk of migraine. The groundbreaking study helps researchers better understand the biological basis of migraine and its subtypes and can speed up the search for new treatment of the condition.
In the largest genome study of migraine yet, researchers have more than tripled the number of known genetic risk factors for migraine. Among the identified 123 genetic regions are two that contain target genes of recently developed migraine-specific drugs.
The study involved leading migraine research groups in Europe, Australia and the United States working together to pool genetic data from more than 873,000 study participants, 102,000 of whom had migraine.
The new findings, published on February 3, 2022 in the journal Nature Genetics, also uncovered more of the genetic architecture of migraine subtypes than was previously known.
