Project description
Model for migraineurs' hypersensitivity
Migraine, a common disabling illness, affects 18 % of the global population. Migraine attacks are recurrent and impair the quality of life of patients. Unfortunately, clinical research into this neurological condition has received the least public funding among all neurological illnesses. Applying a multidisciplinary approach, the MSCA fellow will use a preclinical model of migraine to study brain hypersensitivity to sensory and stressful stimuli. Specifically, it will set up the chronic migraine model in rats for in vivo neurophysiological recordings. The results will assist in developing a new preclinical model and aid in elucidating new therapeutic targets.
Objective
Migraine is a neurological condition affecting 18% of the population worldwide, of whom 80% are women, and yet it is poorly understood and undiagnosed, mainly because research into migraine is the least publicly funded of all neurological illnesses relative to its economic impact. Migraine presents as recurrent attacks of disabling headache accompanied by neurological symptoms, including increased sensitivity to visual and auditory stimuli (sensory hypersensitivity). These debilitating symptoms significantly impair the quality of life of patients ranking migraine as the 2nd most common cause of years lost to disability globally, raising the total annual cost of the disease to more than €111 billion only in the EU.
As an MSCA fellow, I will receive crucial training at VHIR to investigate the sensory hypersensitivity experienced by migraine patients. I will use a preclinical model of migraine to study the brain hypersensitivity to sensory and stressful stimuli by using a multidisciplinary approach. A four-month secondment at University of Hamburg will complete my training in neuroimaging and improve my existing collaborators’ network. The research objectives include 1) Set-up the chronic migraine model in rat with in vivo neurophysiological recordings, 2) Characterisation of behavioural and neurophysiological responses to stimuli in chronic migraine rats, and 3) Description of specific brain areas involved in responses to stimuli in chronic migraine rats by using neuroimaging studies.
SENSOMIG will generate ground-breaking outcomes of the hypersensitivity to stimuli seen in migraine, that will allow the development of a new preclinical model and eventually of new therapeutic targets. Results will be published in high-impact open-access journals and presented at conferences, press and social media to target scientific and lay audiences. This proposal will result in the establishment of a permanent new line of research for which I will be the principal investigator.
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
08035 Barcelona
Spain