Genetics of primary headache syndromes

Abstract

Migraine has an important genetic component. The prototypic monogenic form of migraine is hemiplegic migraine, a rare subtype of migraine with aura, for which three causative genes have been identified. Studies of transgenic animal models have substantially improved our understanding of the molecular pathophysiology of this monogenic model disease as well as of migraine in general. Beyond this, there are other (rarer) monogenic forms of migraine, e.g., in the context of hereditary mostly vascular syndromes such as CADASIL. By contrast, the common types of migraine with and without aura are genetically complex. With the identification of the first robust genetic risk variants in large genome-wide association studies, our knowledge in this still dynamically expanding field has substantially increased. This review summarizes the current status of migraine genetics, with a special focus on hemiplegic migraine as well as the most recent findings in complex migraine genetics. In addition, the first preliminary findings on the genetics of other types of primary headache disorders (cluster headache, tension-type headache) are briefly reviewed.