Effects of Migriheal® on Plasma Proteome of Patients with Migraine Headaches

Recently, based on herbal medicine of Iran, an herbal drug with medical effects named MigriHeal®, has been registered; it helps in prevention of migraine headache strokes. In this study, MigriHeal was administered for pure migraine patients and the aim of this study is proteomic analysis of plasma from patients with migraine headaches before and after treatment with MigriHeal®. Before and after administration of MigriHeal®, patient's plasma was obtained, and then 2DE (2-dimensional electrophoresis) proteomic analysis of 11 patients was done. The Progenesis Same Spots ver.4 software was used for statistical analysis of the gels; according to ANOVA test analysis, we showed that the expression of two proteins named alpha-2-HS-glycoprotein (p-value: 0.023) and alpha-1-B-glycoprotein (p-value: 0.008) was decreased. Two identified proteins have anti-inflammatory effects and based on this finding we concluded inflammation is a pathologic mechanism of migraine, presumably, MigriHeal® has anti-inflammatory effects. Although these are not specific for the migraine and are altered in other diseases, these two proteins may be migraine biomarkers if measured simultaneously with quantitative methods in an expanded population.