英国和加拿大等国研究人员在新一期英国《自然－医学》杂志上报告说，他们在对偏头痛的研究中发现了一个与疼痛敏感度有关的基因，如果能研发出影响这个基因的药物，将有可能通过调节神经对疼痛的敏感程度，帮助人们不再受疼痛的困扰。
研究人员发现，如果一个名为TRESK的基因发生变异，那么病人会更容易感到头痛，甚至对光线、声音和触碰都更敏感。进一步研究显示，这个基因控制着大脑中处理疼痛信号的神经的敏感度，当该基因发生变异时，身体稍有变化就会感觉到疼痛。
来自英国牛津大学的研究人员扎米尔·卡德尔说，这一发现不仅有助于治疗偏头痛，还有望在此基础上研发通用的镇痛药物，使人们免受疼痛困扰。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐英文摘要：
Nature Medicine doi:10.1038/nm.2216
A dominant-negative mutation in the TRESK potassium channel is linked to familial migraine with aura
Ronald G Lafrenière1,2,13, M Zameel Cader3,4,13, Jean-Fran?ois Poulin2, Isabelle Andres-Enguix5, Maryse Simoneau2, Namrata Gupta2, Karine Boisvert2, Fran?ois Lafrenière2, Shannon McLaughlan2, Marie-Pierre Dubé6, Martin M Marcinkiewicz7, Sreeram Ramagopalan8, Olaf Ansorge9, Bernard Brais1, Jorge Sequeiros10, Jose Maria Pereira-Monteiro11, Lyn R Griffiths12, Stephen J Tucker5, George Ebers8 & Guy A Rouleau1,2
Migraine with aura is a common, debilitating, recurrent headache disorder associated with transient and reversible focal neurological symptoms1. A role has been suggested for the two-pore domain (K2P) potassium channel, TWIK-related spinal cord potassium channel (TRESK, encoded by KCNK18), in pain pathways and general anaesthesia2. We therefore examined whether TRESK is involved in migraine by screening the KCNK18 gene in subjects diagnosed with migraine. Here we report a frameshift mutation, F139WfsX24, which segregates perfectly with typical migraine with aura in a large pedigree. We also identified prominent TRESK expression in migraine-salient areas such as the trigeminal ganglion. Functional characterization of this mutation demonstrates that it causes a complete loss of TRESK function and that the mutant subunit suppresses wild-type channel function through a dominant-negative effect, thus explaining the dominant penetrance of this allele. These results therefore support a role for TRESK in the pathogenesis of typical migraine with aura and further support the role of this channel as a potential therapeutic target.
