A new study shows that the monoclonal antibody fremanezumab is effective for migraine prophylaxis, even in patients who have failed to respond to multiple preventive treatments. However, not all patients benefit from this treatment, and detailed investigation of non-responders could help to identify additional pharmacological targets and increase the number of responders.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Relevant articles
Open Access articles citing this article.
-
Role of CGRP pathway polymorphisms in migraine: a systematic review and impact on CGRP mAbs migraine therapy
The Journal of Headache and Pain Open Access 30 July 2021
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Edvinsson, L., Villalon, C. M. & MaassenVanDenBrink, A. Basic mechanisms of migraine and its acute treatment. Pharmacol. Ther. 136, 319–333 (2012).
Reuter, U. et al. Efficacy and tolerability of erenumab in patients with episodic migraine in whom two-to-four previous preventive treatments were unsuccessful: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3b study. Lancet 392, 2280–2287 (2018).
Ashina, M. et al. Efficacy and safety of erenumab (AMG334) in chronic migraine patients with prior preventive treatment failure: a subgroup analysis of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Cephalalgia 38, 1611–1621 (2018).
Ferrari, M. D. et al. Fremanezumab versus placebo for migraine prevention in patients with documented failure to up to four migraine preventive medication classes (FOCUS): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3b trial. Lancet 394, 1030–1040 (2019).
Silberstein, S. D. et al. Fremanezumab for the preventive treatment of chronic migraine. N. Engl. J. Med. 377, 2113–2122 (2017).
Dodick, D. W. et al. Effect of fremanezumab compared with placebo for prevention of episodic migraine: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA 319, 1999–2008 (2018).
Sacco, S. et al. European Headache Federation guideline on the use of monoclonal antibodies acting on the calcitonin gene related peptide or its receptor for migraine prevention. J. Headache Pain 20, 6 (2019).
MaassenVanDenBrink, A., Meijer, J., Villalon, C. M. & Ferrari, M. D. Wiping out CGRP: potential cardiovascular risks. Trends Pharmacol. Sci. 37, 779–788 (2016).
Depre, C. et al. A Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study to evaluate the effect of erenumab on exercise time during a treadmill test in patients with stable angina. Headache 58, 715–723 (2018).
Maassen van den Brink, A., Rubio-Beltran, E., Duncker, D. & Villalon, C. M. Is CGRP receptor blockade cardiovascularly safe? Appropriate studies are needed. Headache 58, 1257–1258 (2018).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
A.M. has received research grants and/or consultation fees from Amgen/Novartis, Lilly/CoLucid, Teva and Autonomic Technologies, Inc. (ATI). T.d.V. declares no competing interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
de Vries, T., MaassenVanDenBrink, A. CGRP-targeted antibodies in difficult-to-treat migraine. Nat Rev Neurol 15, 688–689 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41582-019-0275-0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41582-019-0275-0
This article is cited by
-
Role of CGRP pathway polymorphisms in migraine: a systematic review and impact on CGRP mAbs migraine therapy
The Journal of Headache and Pain (2021)