Effects of sildenafil and calcitonin gene-related peptide on brainstem glutamate levels: a pharmacological proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy study at 3.0 T

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of CGRP (Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide), published as a randomized controlled trial.

Seventeen healthy participants were scanned with the 1H-MRS protocol at baseline and twice (at 40 min and 140 min) after drug administration to investigate the sildenafil- and CGRP-induced glutamate changes in both brainstem and thalamus.

Why It Was Studied

However, the role of possible glutamate level changes in the brainstem and thalamus is of emerging interest in the field of migraine research bringing forth the need for a novel, validated method to study the biochemical effects in these areas.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are teenagers, young adults, adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and crossover.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the CGRP (Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide) group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Blinding on both sides kept the participants and researchers unaware of who received CGRP (Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide).

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the CGRP (Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide) group a baseline to be compared against.

In the crossover set-up each of the participants took both CGRP (Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide) and the comparison in turn, acting as their own control.

What Was Measured

However, the role of possible glutamate level changes in the brainstem and thalamus is of emerging interest in the field of migraine research bringing forth the need for a novel, validated method to study the biochemical effects in these areas.

PubMed files the paper under topics including Brain Stem, Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide, Glutamic Acid, Neurons, Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy and Sildenafil Citrate.

The authors tagged it with the keywords Brainstem, CGRP, Glutamate, Glx, Lactate and MRS.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of CGRP (Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide).

Results are reported in around 6 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2018 (The journal of headache and pain), a journal based in England.

More context: the CGRP (Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide) compound page, all human trials.