Tryptophan Catabolites and Migraine

Migraine is a highly disabling neurological condition affecting around 15% of the population worldwide. Decades of intensive research shed some light on diseases pathomechanism, but information is still missing about the initiation of the attack. In the past century, serotonin emerged as the main target of both basic and therapeutic research. As a result, the triptans, the only approved migraine specific drugs were developed. The involvement of glutamatergic mechanism in migraine headache development such as cortical hyperexcitability, and cortical spreading depression as the pathological correlate of migraine aura called the attention to the kynurenine pathway in migraine pathomechanism. The serotonin and kynurenine pathways are closely connected, as they both are the metabolic routes of the amino acid tryptophan. Kynurenine catabolites are important participants in glutamatergic neurotransmission, regulation also nociceptive processing of the trigeminal system. The current work attempts to collect recent data on both serotonin and kynurenine research related to migraine and emphasizes the importance of further research on this topic.