Int J Clin Pharmacol Res. 1993;13(5):247-53.

Is the unresponsiveness to sumatriptan in cluster headache related to an alteration in the 5-HT receptors?

Stirparo G, Fusco BM, Giacovazzo M, Rinaldi C, Martelletti P

Institute of Biomedical Technologies, CNR, Rome, Italy.

It is well established that cluster headache shows impaired functions at the neuroimmunomodulatory system level. Defects in the expression of receptors for 5-HT, IL-1 and IL-2 have been found in these patients. Sumatriptan, an agonist activity for 5-HT1D receptor, truncates cluster headache attack in 74% of patients. Flow cytometric analysis of monocytes expressing 5-HT receptor in cluster headache patients showed different trends clearly correlated with the clinical response to sumatriptan. Our findings strongly support the concept that cluster headache patients which are non-responders to sumatriptan could present a block in their 5-HT receptor expression possibly due to specific autoantibodies for this receptor site.

PMID: 7515379Entrez PubMed

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