Almotriptan: a review of 10 years' clinical experience

Comprehensive management of adults with chronic migraine: Clinical practice guidelines in Mexico

Introduction:

Migraine is a polygenic multifactorial disorder with a neuronal initiation of a cascade of neurochemical processes leading to incapacitating headaches. Headaches are generally unilateral, throbbing, 4–72 h in duration, and associated with nausea, vomiting, photophobia, and sonophobia. Chronic migraine (CM) is the presence of a headache at least 15 days per month for ≥3 months and has a high global impact on health and economy, and therapeutic guidelines are lacking.

Methods:

Using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations system, we conducted a search in MEDLINE and Cochrane to investigate the current evidence and generate recommendations of clinical practice on the identification of risk factors and treatment of CM in adults.

Results:

We recommend avoiding overmedication of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs); ergotamine; caffeine; opioids; barbiturates; and initiating individualized prophylactic treatment with topiramate eptinezumab, galcanezumab, erenumab, fremanezumab, or botulinum toxin. We highlight the necessity of managing comorbidities initially. In the acute management, we recommend NSAIDs, triptans, lasmiditan, and gepants alone or with metoclopramide if nausea or vomiting. Non-pharmacological measures include neurostimulation.

Conclusions:

We have identified the risk factors and treatments available for the management of CM based on a grading system, which facilitates selection for individualized management.

Targeting the 5-HT1B/1D and 5-HT1F receptors for acute migraine treatment

Migraine is a common and highly disabling headache disorder associated with a substantial socioeconomic burden. Migraine treatments can be categorized as preventive treatment, aimed at reducing the frequency and severity of migraine attacks, and acute therapy, intended to abort attacks. Traditionally, acute treatment can be classified as specific (ergot derivatives and triptans) or nonspecific (analgesics and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs). Triptans, a class of 5-HT1B/1D receptor agonists with some affinity for the 5-HT1F receptor subtype, have been proven to be efficacious for acute treatment of moderate to severe migraine and have been deemed the gold standard. The availability of triptans in non-oral formulations, such as subcutaneous (SC) and intranasal forms, can be beneficial for patients who suffer from prominent nausea or vomiting, have a suboptimal response to oral agents, and/or seek a more rapid onset of treatment effects. However, triptans are contraindicated in patients with preexisting cardiovascular and/or cerebrovascular diseases due to their 5-HT1B-mediated vasoconstrictive action. For this reason, studies have focused on the development of ditans, a group of antimigraine drugs targeting 5-HT1D and 5-HT1F receptors. Unfortunately, 5-HT1D receptor agonists have been shown to be ineffective in the acute treatment of migraine. Several ditans targeting the 5-HT1F receptor have been developed and have shown no vasoconstrictive effect in preclinical studies, but only two of them, lasmiditan and LY334370, have been tested in clinical trials for migraine, and only lasmiditan has reached to Phase III clinical trials. These Phase III trials have demonstrated the efficacy and safety of lasmiditan, a selective 5-HT1F receptor agonist, in acute migraine treatment. Lasmiditan might offer an alternative migraine therapy without cardiovascular risks. This review will summarize the development of agents targeting the 5-HT1B/1D and 5-HT1F receptors and the clinical evidence supporting the use of these agents for acute migraine treatment.

Almotriptan: a review of 20 years' clinical experience

Introduction: Almotriptan (ALT), a serotonin 5-HT_1B/1D agonist has been used in the acute treatment of migraine with or without aura for 20 years, accumulating data on more than 15,000 patients in studies and from an estimated >150 million treated migraine attacks in daily clinical practice. The last major review of ALT was written almost 10 years ago. The current narrative review provides an overview of the experience gained with almotriptan over that time, and highlights data published in the last decade. Areas covered: Randomized clinical trials, observational studies, postmarketing studies and meta-analyses involving ALT for the treatment of acute migraine identified through a systematic literature search. Expert opinion: Triptans are a mainstay of anti-migraine treatment. Findings with ALT over the last 10 years have reinforced the positive efficacy and tolerability results that were reported during the first 10 years following its introduction. In particular, more recent clinical results have confirmed its efficacy in women with menstrual migraine, the usefulness of early intervention, long-term benefit in adults, and also its efficacy and safety in adolescents. Overall, ALT can be considered an optimal choice for managing acute migraine resistant to first-line drugs.

Recent advances in migraine therapy

Migraine is a common and highly disabling neurological disorder associated with a high socioeconomic burden. Effective migraine management depends on adequate patient education: to avoid unrealistic expectations, the condition must be carefully explained to the patient soon as it is diagnosed. The range of available acute treatments has increased over time. At present, abortive migraine therapy can be classed as specific (ergot derivatives and triptans) or non-specific (analgesics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs). Even though acute symptomatic therapy can be optimised, migraine continues to be a chronic and potentially progressive condition. In addition to the drugs officially approved for migraine prevention by international governmental regulatory agencies, numerous different agents are commonly used for this indication, showing various levels of evidence of efficacy and tolerability. Guidelines published in recent years, based on evidence-based medicine data on migraine prophylaxis, are a useful source of guidance, especially for primary care physicians and neurologists without specific expertise in headache medicine. Although the field of pharmacological migraine prevention has seen few advances in recent years, potential novel approaches are now being developed. This review looks at emerging pharmacological strategies for acute and preventive migraine treatment that are nearing or have already entered the clinical trial phase. Specifically, it discusses preclinical and clinical data on compounds acting on calcitonin gene-related peptide or its receptor, the serotonin 5-HT1F receptor, nitric oxide synthase, and acid-sensing ion channel blockers.

Almotriptan for menstrually related migraine

INTRODUCTION

Approximately 50% of migrainous women associate their headache temporally to menses. Menstrually related migraine (MRM) is a disabling form of migraine characterized by attacks that are generally longer, more severe and less drug-responsive than nonmenstrual ones. Since MRM may be difficult to treat, it is important to find an appropriate treatment option for women suffering from this condition.

AREAS COVERED

This paper provides an overview of the clinical features of MRM, with special attention on the use of almotriptan for its treatment. Four studies on almotriptan in the treatment of MRM are present in the medical literature. Two report post hoc analyses of data derived from larger studies on the use of almotriptan for migraine treatment. One reports the results from a study specifically dedicated to MRM and one illustrates a subanalysis on the accompanying symptomatology.

EXPERT OPINION

Evidence demonstrates that almotriptan is a molecule with a high efficacy in the treatment of MRM and with an excellent tolerability profile when compared with other triptans. Moreover, it shows a proven ability to control migraine-associated symptoms. All these qualities play a decidedly positive role in making almotriptan a product of choice for the treatment of MRM.

Effect of iontophoresis on in vitro transdermal absorption of almotriptan

The aim of the present work was to characterize the in vitro transdermal absorption of almotriptan through pig ear skin. The passive diffusion of almotriptan malate and its iontophoretic transport were investigated using current densities of 0.25 and 0.50mA/cm(2). In vitro iontophoresis experiments were conducted on diffusion cells with an agar bridge without background electrolytes in the donor compartment. Although both current densities applied produced a statistically significant increment with respect to passive permeation of almotriptan (p<0.01), that of 0.50mA/cm(2) proved to be the best experimental condition for increasing the transport of almotriptan across the skin. Under these experimental conditions, the transdermal flux of the drug increased 411-fold with respect to passive diffusion, reaching 264±24μg/cm(2)h (mean±SD). Based on these results, and taking into account the pharmacokinetics of almotriptan, therapeutic drug plasma levels for the management of migraine could be achieved via transdermal iontophoresis using a reasonably sized (around 7.2cm(2)) patch.