Interictal ceramide kinase in migraine

Abstract

Introduction Migraine is a common neurologic disorder. It is still controversial whether migraine is a primarily vascular disorder or caused by neuronal dysfunction, but it is likely that both have a significant role to play. Objective The objective of this study was to evaluate serum levels of interictal ceramide kinase in patients with migraine. Patients and methods A total of 35 patients with migraine, including 12 patients with migraine with aura and 23 patients with migraine without aura, and 16 apparently healthy, age-matched and sex-matched individuals were included in this study. Patients underwent full history taking, including type of headache, frequency of headache attacks per month, and assessment of migraine-related disability by the Migraine Disability Assessment Scale. Serum ceramide kinase level was evaluated for both patients (during pain-free period) and control participants using quantitative sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results The patients with migraine had significantly higher serum levels of ceramide kinase than the control group, and these levels were significantly correlated with the frequency of the attacks and with scores of Migraine Disability Assessment Scale. Conclusion The results suggested that migraine is associated with alteration in sphingolipid metabolism and that might be because of increased levels of ceramide kinase.

Keywords

• ceramide kinase
• migraine
• sphingolipids