Potassium channel gating
Cranial vessel potassium-channel opening
Also searched as Cranial vessel potassium-channel opening.
A potassium channel in the walls of cranial blood vessels, and the point where the migraine cascade converges: nitric oxide opens it one way, cgrp and pacap another. Opening it deliberately produces an attack in 82–100% of people tested, which makes it the most potent migraine trigger identified to date.
In depth
A potassium channel in cranial vessels that nitric oxide, cgrp and pacap all converge on to open.
What drives it
Blood flow (nitric oxide) increases it.
The NO donor glyceryl trinitrate activates the KATP channel via the guanylyl cyclase pathway. doi 10.3390/cells11152406 · PMC10418850
Headache peptide increases it.
The neuropeptides PACAP and CGRP activate KATP channels via the adenylyl cyclase pathway. doi 10.3390/cells11152406 · PMC10418850
The Third Alarm Bell increases it.
The neuropeptides PACAP and CGRP activate KATP channels via the adenylyl cyclase pathway. doi 10.3390/cells11152406 · PMC10418850
What it drives
It increases Neurovascular calm.
Experimental infusion of the KATP channel opener levcromakalim to healthy volunteers and migraine patients induced headache and migraine attacks in 82-100% of participants; thus this is the most potent trigger of headache and migraine identified to date. doi 10.3390/cells11152406 · PMC10418850
It increases Trigeminal nerve pathway.
Kir6.1, Kir6.2, SUR1 and SUR2 are expressed in the trigeminal ganglion and trigeminal nucleus caudalis; KATP channels are widely present in the trigeminovascular system and regulate cerebral and meningeal arterial tone. doi 10.1177/03331024251355944 · PMC5567577
Blends that modulate it
Each blend page names this pathway and carries the study behind its claim.
See it on the map
Open the causal map to follow this pathway upstream and downstream, arrow by arrow, each with its study.