The Role of BDNF Gene Polymorphism in Formation of Clinical Characteristics of Migraine

Abstract

Objective: There is evidence that brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) has a role in migraine pathophysiology. In our research, association of substitutions in BDNF gene (rs6265, rs11030107, rs2049046) with clinical parameters of migraine is considered. Background: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a neurotrophin presented widely in central nervous system. BDNF regulates axonal growth and differentiation; synapse formation; activity of dopaminergic, serotoninergic, GABA-ergic, and cholinergic neurons. Apparently, BDNF participates in the development of the primary forms of headaches. Patients and Methods: The research included 155 patients with migraine (according to ICHD-III, 2013). The control group consisted in 203 unexamined individuals. Patients underwent clinical neurological examination and blood sampling. Genotypes were determined using PCR-RFLP method. Results: We did not find a significant association between studied SNPs and migraine. We showed that the TT-genotype of rs2049046 influences the migraine chronification the episodes transform by regression of prodromal period, and the endurance of episodes themselves shortens. The GG genotype of rs6265 has no significant influence on the formation and manifestation of migraine. Possession of G-allele of rs1030107 influences the formation of drug abuse and higher frequency of photo-and phonophobia during the migraine episode. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the substitutions rs2049046 and rs1030107 in BDNF gene play role in formation of clinical manifestations of migraine.

Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Val66Met Gene Polymorphism Impacts on Migraine Susceptibility: A Meta-analysis of Case–Control Studies

“…After exclusion of 54 hits for not meeting the inclusion criteria, five studies with 1,442 cases and 1,880 controls were, therefore, included in the final meta-analysis (18–21, 25). The detailed flowchart of literature review process is shown in Figure 1.…”

“…Methodological items for quality assessment and individual item scores of each included study are illustrated in Table 2. Three studies were classified as “higher” quality studies (19–21), while the remaining two studies were rated as “lower” quality studies (18, 25). Genotypic data for the BDNF gene rs6265 were available in four studies as subgroups of migraine with and without aura (18, 20, 21, 25).…”

“…A very recent meta-analysis by Cai et al (40) has reported association of two BDNF gene variants (i.e., rs6265 and rs2049046) with migraine susceptibility (40). While the association of also rs2049046 is not surprising, given its strong linkage disequilibrium with rs6265 (41), it is noteworthy that Cai et al did not include the study by Azimova et al (25) in their analysis and they did not perform a subgroup analysis based on migraine type not performed. Thus, we feel that in the present study, we derived a more precise and more comprehensive estimation of the association between rs6265 and migraine.…”

“…Corresponding authors of eligible studies were contacted via email when relevant data were not extractable from the published manuscript. One of them (25) generously provided data on rs6265 genotype distribution needed to calculate the Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) and to compute odds ratios (ORs).…”