The Brain Prize Online Seminar Series: Amynah Pradhan's Brain Prize seminar
The Brain Prize Online Seminar Series: Amynah Pradhan - Emerging therapeutic targets for migraine
In 2021 The Brain Prize, the world’s largest award for neuroscience, was awarded to Jes Olesen, Lars Edvinsson, Peter Goadsby, and Michael Moskowitz for their work on the causes and treatment of migraine.
The Brain Prize seminar series on migraine and headache consists of 12 seminars from international leaders in the field including the 2021 Brain Prize winners.
The series will begin in April 2021 and end in March 2022 and covers topics including mechanistic studies in patients and animal models, genetics of migraine, cluster- and post-traumatic headache, and treatment of migraine and headache disorders.
Emerging therapeutic targets for migraine
Migraine is the third most prevalent disease worldwide and is estimated to affect upwards of 14% of the population. Our lab has used novel preclinical models to identify the delta-opioid receptor (DOR) as a therapeutic target for multiple headache disorders, including migraine.
We have also investigated the relationship between DOR with the pro-migraine peptide, CGRP. There is regional variation between the co-expression of DOR with CGRP or its receptor in the trigeminal complex. This work indicates that DOR agonists can moderate both CGRP release and signaling, thus regulating pro-migraine effects at two different levels.
Recent work in our lab has also explored how cytoarchitectural changes in pain processing regions are critical for the maintenance of the chronic migraine state. We show that there is decreased neuronal complexity in two different models of migraine, and that restoration of tubulin dynamics, directly by HDAC6 inhibitor or indirectly by CGRP receptor antagonist, can inhibit migraine-associated symptoms.
These studies provide fundamental information on how cytoskeletal dynamics are altered in chronic migraine, and form the basis for the development of HDAC6 inhibitors for headache treatment.
The Brain Prize Online Seminar Series Programme:
Note that all the seminars start at 4 PM CET.
Jes Olesen, Denmark| 29 April 2021
Lars Edvinsson, Sweden | 27 May 2021
Peter Goadsby, UK/USA |24 June 2021
Michael Moskowitz, USA | 29 July 2021
Messoud Ashina, Denmark | 25 August 2021
Amy Gelfand, USA | 30 September 2021
Daniela Pietrobon, Italy | 28 October 2021
Nouchine Hadjikhani, USA | 18 November 2021
Amynha Pradhan, USA | 9 December 2021
Arn van den Maagdenberg, Netherlands | 27 January 2022
David Dodick, USA | 24 February 2022
Philip Holland, UK | 24 March 2022