Familial migraine with aura is associated with a mutation in the TRESK potassium channel

A mutation in the gene encoding the two-pore ___domain potassium channel TRESK (TWIK-related spinal cord potassium channel) could be an underlying cause of a common hereditary form of migraine with aura, new research published in Nature Medicine indicates. The findings are likely to have implications both for understanding migraine pathogenesis and for guiding the development of new treatment strategies.

In an international collaboration involving teams in Canada, the UK, Portugal and Australia, Ronald Lafrenière, Zameel Cader, Guy Rouleau and colleagues sequenced 150 ion channel genes in a panel of 360 unrelated individuals, including 110 patients with migraine. “We selected migraine with aura and chose probands with a strong family history of migraine to favor cases likely to be caused by deleterious coding mutations in ion channel genes,” explains Rouleau.