Cytochrome P450 2D6 and glutathione S-transferase M1 genotypes and migraine

Background Migraine is thought to be a disease of the brain and trigeminova scular system. Migraine patients often claim that stress, food, and beverag es trigger their attacks. Chemical substances in these foodstuffs with the property of triggering migraine attacks have not yet been characterised. Cy tochrome P450 2D6 (CYP2D6) and glutathione S-transferase M1 (GSTM1) are tho ught to be present in the brain. They metabolise numerous environmental com pounds. The genes exhibit genetic polymorphism that is associated with alte red enzyme activity. The aim of this study was to determine if the genotype s of these two enzymes are associated with migraine. Materials and methods The study included 100 female patients and 245 female controls from the general population. Genomic DNA was isolated from whole blood. Allele specific PCR methods were used to identify the normal CYP2D6* 1 allele and the mutated CYP2D6*3 and CYP2D6*4 alleles. Initially all sampl es were genotyped only for GSTM1 plus (+) and GSTM1 null (-) variants. All samples positive for GSTM1 were further analysed for the presence of alleli c variants GSTM1*A and GSTM1*B. Results None of the CYP2D6 and GSTM1 genotypes was associated with migraine . We observed an odds ratio (OR) for the poor metaboliser genotype of CYP2D 6 of 1.4 (95% CI = 0.5-3.6) and for the GSTM1 null genotype of 1.0 (95% CI = 0.6-1.5). Conclusion The results of this study indicate that deficient metabolism bec ause of mutated CYP2D6 alleles or GSTM1 allele variants is not important in the aetiology of migraine.