Effect of intranasal arginine vasopressin on human headache.

Arginine vasopressin (AVP), a nonapeptide hormone of posterior pituitary, reaches the central nervous system from systemic blood circulation with a difficulty because of the blood-brain barrier (BBB). The interest has been expressed in the use of the nasal route for delivery of AVP to the brain directly, exploiting the olfactory pathway. Our previous study has demonstrated that AVP in the brain rather than the spinal cord and blood circulation plays an important role in rat pain modulation. For understanding the role of AVP on pain modulation in human, the communication tried to investigate the effect of intranasal AVP on human headache. The results showed that (1) AVP concentration in both plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) increased significantly in headache patients, who related with the headache level; (2) there was a positive relationship between plasma and CSF AVP concentration in headache patients; and (3) intranasal AVP could relieve the human headache in a dose-dependent manner. The data suggested that intranasal AVP, which was delivered to the brain through olfactory region, could treat human headache and AVP might be a potential drug of pain relief by intranasal administration.