A huge emerging area of medical treatment is in the study and use of antibodies. Imagine if you were a sharpshooter, with a special gun that could attack certain cells or substances in the body. There would be little or no collateral damage – the bullets would only hit what you wanted to hit.

Now imagine that you could use that gun (an antibody medication) to shoot the messengers that were carrying around pain signals in your body – and in this way you could stop a headache in its tracks.

Sounds great, doesn’t it? That’s what many many researchers around the world are thinking too. Though a relatively new field, it’s growing quickly, especially in conditions such as cancer and immune related diseases (such as Crohn’s disease and multiple sclerosis).

And, of course, this type of treatment has caught the imagination of migraine specialists. But the question becomes – what should the antibody gun shoot at?

The use of monoclonal antibodies directed against CGRP (calcitonin gene-related peptide neurotransmitter) is probably the hottest area of research in the area of antibodies for migraine. CGRP is the target, and this type of medication is showing a lot of promise as multiple companies race to get it the market. (Read more: The “Revolution” in Migraine Treatment (Dr. Peter Goadsby))

But there are other targets that are being researched. For example, Dr. Yu-Qing Cao of the Washington University Pain Center has carried out research (funded by the Migraine Research Foundation) on cytokines and chemokines as new targets for the antibody sharpshooters.

Cytokines and chemokines? What are they? Well, they’re types of protein in the body that coordinate immune responses. They’re handy to have around, but when they get out of control they can cause inflammation and degeneration on a neurological scale.

There are certain proteins that may rise in headache patients – could we shoot them down and stop the headache?

In a trial with mice (you have to start somewhere), the results of the proper antibodies were promising.

Drugs are already in the pipeline that could hit some of these migraine-specific targets, such as clazakizumab which is being developed for arthritis pain.

So this is what many researchers are doing – finding possible targets, looking for links with headache and migraine, and finding ways to shoot them down to keep them from causing problems, such as PAIN.

Check out the links below if you want to learn more. But if you want to help further migraine research, visit the Migraine Research Foundation and donate today (if you don’t need a tax receipt, or you’re outside of the USA, encourage our community by donating through this link. Either way the funds go directly to the MRF.)

• New Migraine Drugs: What About CGRP?
• Cytokines and Chemokines at the Crossroads of Neuroinflammation, Neurodegeneration, and Neuropathic Pain
• Immunotherapy for Migraine Headache
• Monoclonal antibody drugs for cancer: How they work