From bench to bedside: relevant animal models across the migraine attack phases

Migraine is a debilitating brain disorder for which there remains a considerable therapeutic gap that needs to be addressed in order to develop novel effective treatment options for patients. Preclinical translational models have contributed significantly to migraine research by improving our understanding of migraine pathophysiology as well as identifying and validating new drug targets. In this review, we will summarise key animal models and discuss how commonly used experimental readouts used in these models can be integrated for the investigation of the various phases of a migraine attack. A major focus is to highlight the translational potential of the experimental models and how they can help bridge the gap between preclinical research and clinical application and how increased understanding of fundamental disease mechanisms can form the basis of improved migraine treatments. Providing such a resource may inform the broader migraine research community on which model and readout they might consider when studying a specific phase of the migraine attack, when evaluating the efficacy of new possible drugs and innovative therapeutic strategies.