Effects of acetaminophen and ibuprofen in children with migraine receiving preventive treatment with magnesium

Aim: The purpose of this study was to evaluate both the effects of ibuprofen and/or acetaminophen for the acute treatment of primary migraine in children in or out prophylactic treatment with magnesium. Methods: The study had been approved by the Researchers Ethics Committee of the “Pugliese-Ciaccio” Hospital (protocol number 720/2010; EUDRACT NUMBER 2012-005737-36) and the children ranging from the ages of 5 to 18 years with at least four attack/month of primary migraine were enrolled. A Visual Analogical Scale was used to evaluate pain intensity at the moment of admission to the study (start of the study) and every month up to 18 months later (end of the study). Results: 160 children of both sexes were assigned in four groups to receive a treatment with acetaminophen or ibuprofen without or with magnesium. Migraine pain endurance and monthly frequency were similar in the four groups. Both acetaminophen and ibuprofen induced a significant decrease in pain intensity (p<0.01), without a time-dependent correlation, but didn’t modify its frequency. Magnesium pre-treatment induced a significant decrease in pain intensity (P<0.01) without a time-dependent correlation, in both acetaminophen and ibuprofen treated children and also significantly reduced (P<0.01) the pain relief timing during acetaminophen but not during ibuprofen treatment (P<0.01). In both acetaminophen and ibuprofen-groups, magnesium pre-treatment significantly reduced the pain frequency (P<0.01) Conclusions: Magnesium increased the efficacy of ibuprofen and acetaminophen with not age-related effects

Hsa-miR-34a-5p and hsa-miR-375 as biomarkers for monitoring the effects of drug treatment for migraine pain in children and adolescents: A Pilot study

MicroRNAs (miRs) have emerged as biomarkers of migraine disease in both adults and children. In this study we evaluated the expression of hsa-miR-34a-5p and hsa-miR-375 in serum and saliva of young subjects (age 11 +/- 3.467 years) with migraine without aura (MWA), while some underwent pharmacological treatment, and healthy young subjects were used as controls. miRs were determined using the qRT-PCR method, and gene targets of hsa-miR-34a-5p and hsa-miR-375 linked to pain-migraine were found by in silico analysis. qRT-PCR revealed comparable levels of hsa-miRs in both blood and saliva. Higher expression of hsa-miR-34a-5p and hsa-miR-375 was detected in saliva of untreated MWAs compared to healthy subjects (hsa-miR-34a-5p: p &lt; 0.05; hsa-miR-375 p &lt; 0.01). Furthermore, in MWA treated subjects, a significant decrease of hsa-miR-34a-5p and of hsa-miR-375 was documented in saliva and blood compared to MWA untreated ones. Altogether, these findings suggested thathsa-miR-34a-5p and hsa-miR-375 are expressed equally in blood and saliva and that they could be a useful biomarker of disease and of drug efficacy in patients with MWA