Unexpected discovery leads to better understanding of migraine

[PeteS in CA]

Unexpected discovery leads to better understanding of migraine

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-12-unexpected-discovery-migraine.html

Massive "plumes" of glutamate, a key neurotransmitter, surging in the brain could help explain the onset of migraine with aura—and potentially a broad swath of neurologic disease, including stroke and traumatic brain injury—according to an international study led by University of Utah Health scientists.
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Like many discoveries, this one was a bit serendipitous. Lead author Patrick Parker, Ph.D., then a graduate student in the Brennan lab, was studying abnormalities in glutamate signaling in mice carrying a human gene that leads to a condition called familial hemiplegic migraine type 2 (FHM2).
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Previous work in Italy found that the FHM2 mutation slows the rate of glutamate removal from the extracellular space, leading to excessive activity of brain networks. But what Parker and his team found in this current study was surprising: large plumes, or puffs of glutamate release, that appeared spontaneously and seemed to spread from a central location.
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Intrigued, the researchers delved deeper, discovering that plumes arose from a dysfunctional interaction between neurons and astrocytes. Astrocytes are specialized brain cells that, among other things, help control glutamate levels. The researchers determined that either too much neuronal release of glutamate, or too little astrocyte uptake, could lead to plumes.