The journal of pain : official journal of the American Pain Society
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Chronic triptan exposure in rodents recapitulates medication overuse headache (MOH), causing cephalic pain sensitization and trigeminal ganglion overexpression of pronociceptive proteins including CGRP. Because of these transcriptional derangements, as well as the emerging role of epigenetics in chronic pain, in the present study, we evaluated the effects of the histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACis) panobinostat and givinostat, in rats chronically exposed to eletriptan for 1 month. Both panobinostat and givinostat counteracted overexpression of genes coding for CGRP and its receptor subunit RAMP1, having no effects on CLR and RCP receptor subunits in the trigeminal ganglion (TG) of eletriptan-exposed rats. ⋯ The drugs, however, increased luciferase expression driven by CGRP promoter in cultured cells. Our findings provide evidence for a key role of HDACs and epigenetics in MOH pathogenesis, highlighting the therapeutic potential of HDAC inhibition in the prevention of migraine chronification. PERSPECTIVE: The present study highlights a key epigenetic role of HDAC in the rodent model of medication overuse headache, furthering our understanding of the molecular mechanisms responsible for pronociceptive sensitization during headache chronification.