In this on-demand webinar, guest speaker Dr. Paolo Botta discusses his use of miniscope technology in freely behaving animals and functional ultrasound in anesthetized animals to investigate migraine pathophysiology. Learn how these novel technologies are used to explore and validate headache treatments.
Vasoactive neuropeptides, such as PACAP, are directly implicated in migraine pathophysiology. During the occurrence of migraine, they are released by trigeminocervical nerves which increase vasodilation of venous sinuses, meningeal, and pial arteries. Similarities between laboratory animals and humans in the anatomy and physiology of the cephalic nociceptive pathways have allowed scientists to improve our understanding of headache and migraine. Nevertheless, modeling the mechanisms underlying primary headache disorders like migraine has been challenging due to limitations in substantiating, translating, and back-translating the postulated hypotheses in humans. We overcome this main limitation by developing a functional preclinical model to validate headache treatment principles that closely resemble human studies. This model includes performing blood vessel imaging in freely moving rodents using miniature microscopes and in anesthetized animals using functional ultrasound.
Find out more about the technology featured in this webinar or our other multiscopes solutions:
Paolo Botta, Ph.D., Principal Scientist, Lundbeck
Jonathan Zapata, Ph.D., Translational Science Lead, Inscopix