Therapeutic effect of calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor antagonists on migraine nausea

  Headache is the main symptom during a migraine attack; however, the accompanying symptoms of migraine, such as photophobia, phonophobia, nausea and vomiting may be more bothersome to patients than the headache itself. Studies have reported that approximately 60-95% of migraineurs experience nausea and 50-62% of migraineurs experience vomiting during an attack. Traditional efficacy assessments in clinical trials for acute migraine treatment have focused on headache, nausea, and photophobia, with phobia as a co-primary efficacy endpoint.In February 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration released draft guidelines for the development of medications for the acute treatment of migraine, recommending two co-primary outcome indicators for trial design: absence of pain and absence of most annoying symptoms, both of which are assessed at 2 These two indicators are assessed 2 hours after administration of the study drug. The pathophysiology of nausea is complex and is associated with dysregulation of the gastrointestinal and central nervous systems, primarily involving six neurotransmitters, including 5-hydroxytryptamine, dopamine, neurokinin, substance P, acetylcholine, and calcitonin gene-related peptide. Calcitonin gene-related peptide is an important neurotransmitter for inhibitory sensory neurons, and it has been hypothesized that cisternal dysfunction may contribute to functional dyspepsia symptoms. Calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor antagonists are also known as gepant-like drugs. There was an analysis of 23,008 participants in 65 clinical trials from 14 published articles (10,770 subjects participated in the gepant treatment group and 12,238 subjects participated in the placebo or non-gepant group), and the conclusions suggest that there is sufficient evidence to support the efficacy of gepant analogs for the treatment of episodic migraine nausea. It has been hypothesized that the anti-nausea effect of gepant analogs may be related to blocking these gastrointestinal CGRP receptors. Although gepant analogs limit the penetration of the blood-brain barrier, their anti-nausea effect may involve brain regions within the medulla oblongata that do not have a blood-brain barrier. In addition, studies have shown that calcitonin gene-related peptides are present in the cochlear and vestibular end organs and in the vestibular nuclei within the medulla oblongata. Vestibular disorders such as vertigo are common in migraine and contribute to the incidence of nausea. Based on these possibilities, we hypothesize that gepant-like drugs may have an effect on periodic vomiting disorder, irritable bowel syndrome, and gastroparesis.