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Updated: May 17, 2026

Investigating Migraine-Like Behavior Using Light Aversion in Mice
Published on: August 11, 2021
Acid-sensing ion channel 1: a novel therapeutic target for migraine with aura
Philip R Holland1, Simon Akerman, Anna P Andreou
1Headache Group, Department of Neurology, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94115, USA.
Objective:
Migraine with aura is a severe debilitating neurological disorder with few relatively specific therapeutic options.
Methods:
We used amiloride, a blocker of epithelial sodium channels, to evaluate its pharmacological potential and explored the biology of a potential mechanism of action in well-established experimental models.
Results:
Amiloride was shown to block cortical spreading depression, the experimental correlate of aura, and inhibited trigeminal activation in in vivo migraine models, via an acid-sensing ion channel 1 mechanism. Remarkably, amiloride then demonstrated good clinical efficacy in a small open-labeled pilot study of patients, reducing aura and headache symptoms in 4 of 7 patients with otherwise intractable aura.
Interpretation:
The observations here identify an entirely novel treatment strategy for migraine.
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