The role of androgens in migraine pathophysiology.

Migraine affects ∼12 % of the worldwide population and is more prevalent in females, which suggests a role of sex hormones in migraine pathophysiology. Most studies have focused on estrogen and progesterone, and the involvement of androgens has been less studied. However, due to the recent advances in androgen interventions, which could advance new androgen-based migraine treatments, it is critical to better understand the role of androgens in migraine.

Harnessing the conditioned pain modulation response in migraine diagnosis, outcome prediction, and treatment-A narrative review.

Objective: To present the potential use and relevance of the conditioned pain modulation (CPM) response to migraine diagnosis, outcome prediction, and treatment.

Background: The CPM response is a widely used laboratory test to examine inhibitory pain modulation capabilities.

Methods: This narrative review summarizes and synthesizes the findings on the CPM response in patients with migraine.

Effects of Procedural Discomfort and Expectation of Benefit on Therapy Continuation in Chronic Migraine Patients Treated With OnabotulinumtoxinA.

Background: OnabotulinumtoxinA (BTX) has become a mainstream treatment for chronic migraine (CM). Patients often have varied expectations for treatment success but little is known about how these initial impressions influence continuation of therapy.

Objective: To record expectations of benefit and procedural discomfort (PD) from initial BTX treatment and to investigate their association with treatment success, defined as continuation of treatment for >3 sessions within a 2-year period.

γ-Hydroxybutyric acid-induced electrographic seizures.

We describe a case of absence-like electrographic seizures during NREM sleep in a patient who was taking sodium oxybate, a sodium salt of γ-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB). An overnight full montage electroencephalography (EEG) study revealed numerous frontally predominant rhythmic 1.5-2 Hz sharp waves and spike-wave activity during stage N2 and N3 sleep at the peak dose time for sodium oxybate, resembling atypical absence-like electrographic seizures.

Brainstem glioma presenting as pruritus in children with neurofibromatosis-1.

Children with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) are at increased risk of developing tumors of the nervous system. The most common intracranial tumors are low-grade astrocytomas, which most frequently involve the optic pathway, and less often, the brainstem. In cases of brainstem glioma in NF1, treatment decisions are frequently complicated by the paucity of symptoms referable to the tumor.

High TGFbeta-Smad activity confers poor prognosis in glioma patients and promotes cell proliferation depending on the methylation of the PDGF-B gene.

TGFbeta acts as a tumor suppressor in normal epithelial cells and early-stage tumors and becomes an oncogenic factor in advanced tumors. The molecular mechanisms involved in the malignant function of TGFbeta are not fully elucidated. We demonstrate that high TGFbeta-Smad activity is present in aggressive, highly proliferative gliomas and confers poor prognosis in patients with glioma.

Prickle and Strabismus form a functional complex to generate a correct axis during planar cell polarity signaling.

Frizzled (Fz) signaling regulates the establishment of planar cell polarity (PCP). The PCP genes prickle (pk) and strabismus (stbm) are thought to antagonize Fz signaling. We show that they act in the same cell, R4, adjacent to that in which the Fz/PCP pathway is required in the Drosophila eye.

Beta-catenin/Tcf-regulated transcription prior to the midblastula transition.

Following fertilization, the zygotic genome in many organisms is quiescent until the midblastula transition (MBT), when large-scale transcription begins. In Xenopus embryos, for example, transcription is believed to be repressed until the twelfth cell division. Thus, although dorsal-ventral patterning begins during the first cell cycle, little attention has been given to transcriptional regulation in pre-MBT development.

The planar polarity gene strabismus regulates convergent extension movements in Xenopus.

The signaling mechanisms that specify, guide and coordinate cell behavior during embryonic morphogenesis are poorly understood. We report that a Xenopus homolog of the Drosophila planar cell polarity gene strabismus (stbm) participates in the regulation of convergent extension, a critical morphogenetic process required for the elongation of dorsal structures in vertebrate embryos. Overexpression of Xstbm, which is expressed broadly in early development and subsequently in the nervous system, causes severely shortened trunk structures; a similar phenotype results from inhibiting Xstbm translation using a morpholino antisense oligo.