Italian researchers say they are on the verge of unveiling the fragment of DNA that causes migraines and other debilitating headaches - the world's fifth biggest neurological problem.
Lorenzo Pinessi of Turin's Le Molinette research hospital said his team's work - to be unveiled here Wednesday at the annual conference of the Italian Society for Headache Studies - was "unprecedented".
Working with US scientists who provided advanced DNA test equipment not available in Turin, Pinessi said the Turin researchers had examined several possible candidates and were now poised to unveil the gene that not only causes migraines but transmits them from one generation to the next.
He said he could not yet reveal its identity because the research work was only in the process of being prepared. But a paper would be proposed to the journal Nature "within two months".
"The gene we are homing in on is found on a single chromosome," Pinessi said.
"We will probably be able to prove for the first time the existence of a gene site linked to migraine".
Pinessi said this could have a "most remarkable" implication for treating the potentially disabling condition, which affects millions of people worldwide.
"We're still just groping blindly when it comes to treating migraines. This discovery could lead us out of the darkness".
