5-HT1B receptor polymorphism and clinical response to sumatriptan

The 5-HT1 receptor agonist, sumatriptan, is highly effective in the treatment of migraine. Some patients, however, do not respond or experience recurrence of the headache. In addition, some patients report chest symptoms after sumatriptan. We investigated whether these different responses could be attributed to genetic diversity of the 5-HT1B receptor, which most likely mediates the therapeutic action and the coronary side effects of sumatriptan. Allele frequencies of two polymorphisms in the 5-HT1B receptor gene (G861C and T-261G) were investigated in migraine patients with consistently good response to sumatriptan (n = 14), with no response (n = 12), with recurrence of the headache (n = 12), with chest symptoms (n = 13), and in patients without chest symptoms (n = 27). Allele frequencies (G:0.74; C:0.26 at nt 861 and T:0.39; G:0.61 at nt -261) did not differ between patient groups, indicating that genetic diversity of the 5-HT1B receptor does not seem to be involved in the different clinical responses to sumatriptan.