Why does blocking CGRP prevent migraine attacks? · Grey Matter

CGRP is the main peptide released by activated trigeminal pain fibres in the meninges, where it widens blood vessels and sensitises the tissue and the nerve pathway that carries the pain.

Why does blocking CGRP prevent migraine attacks?

CGRP is the main peptide released by activated trigeminal pain fibres in the meninges, where it widens blood vessels and sensitises the tissue and the nerve pathway that carries the pain. Its levels rise during attacks, and giving it to people with migraine provokes migraine-like headaches, which identified it as a cause along the pain pathway. Antibodies that bind CGRP or its receptor (the first, erenumab, was approved in the United States in 2018) and small-molecule receptor blockers interrupt that step, reducing attacks with and without aura, because the trigeminovascular pathway is common to both.