London, April 18: In a breakthrough, scientists have found an antibody, a monthly dose of which could halve the number of debilitating attacks of migraine on patients who have exhausted all other treatments.
The findings showed that people treated with erenumab were nearly three times more likely to have reduced their migraine days by 50 per cent or more than those treated with placebo.
Those treated with erenumab also had a greater average reduction in the number of days they had headaches and the number of days they needed to take drugs to stop the migraines.
"Our study found that erenumab reduced the average number of monthly migraine headaches by more than 50 percent for nearly a third of study participants. That reduction in migraine headache frequency can greatly improve a person's quality of life," said Uwe Reuter from The Charite - University Medicine Berlin in Germany.
Erenumab is a monoclonal antibody that blocks pain signals by targeting a receptor for calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP).
This peptide transmits migraine pain signals. Erenumab occupies the nerves to which CGRP would usually bind.
"Our results show that people who thought their migraines were difficult to prevent may actually have hope of finding pain relief," Reuter added.
The preliminary results will be presented at the forthcoming American Academy of Neurology's 70th Annual Meeting in Los Angeles.
For the study, 246 people who had episodic migraine were given injections of either 140 milligrams of erenumab or a placebo once a month for three months.
Of the participants, 39 per cent had been treated unsuccessfully with two other medications, 38 per cent with three medications and 23 per cent with four medications.
A total of 30 per cent of the people treated with erenumab had half the number of headaches compared to 14 per cent on placebo.
For those on erenumab, there was an average 1.6 times greater reduction in migraine days and a 1.7 times greater reduction in acute medication days compared to those on placebo.
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BJP issues show cause notice to MP Jayant Sinha for absence from voting and election campaign
Ranchi (PTI): The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday slapped a show cause notice on former Union Minister Jayant Sinha for not taking part in campaigning after Manish Jaiswal was declared candidate from the Hazaribag Lok Sabha seat and thereby "maligning" the party's image.
Sinha, son of former union finance minister Yashwant Sinha, is the sitting MP of Hazaribagh.
"You are not taking any interest in organisational work and election campaigning ever since the party declared Manish Jaiswal as the candidate from Hazaribag LS seat. You did not even feel proper to exercise your right of franchise. The party's image has been maligned due to your conduct," BJP state general secretary Aditya Sahu said in the notice.
Sinha was conspicuous by his absence during polling in Hazaribag constituency on Monday.
The party has sought an explanation from Jayant Sinha within two days, following instructions from state BJP president and former Jharkhand chief minister Babulal Marandi.
Asked about future course of action, Sahu told PTI that it would depend on Sinha's response.
Sinha did not respond to calls and messages in this regard.
Hours before the announcement that Jaiswal would be the candidate for Hazaribagh, Sinha had requested party leadership to relieve him from electoral politics.
In a post on X on March 2, the MP said he would continue to work with the party on economic and governance issues and wanted to focus his efforts on "combating global climate change in Bharat and around the world".
"I have had the privilege of serving the people of Bharat and Hazaribagh for the past ten years. Moreover, I have been blessed by the many opportunities provided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and the BJP leadership. My sincerest gratitude to all of them. Jai Hind!" he had said in that post.
Hazaribag, a high-profile urban constituency in Jharkhand, was once represented by Yashwant Sinha and later his son, Jayant Sinha.
Sinha won the seat by a margin of 4.79 lakh votes, defeating Congress's Gopal Sahu in 2019.
Notably, Jaiswal had earlier contested from the Mandu assembly seat on a JVM ticket.
