Effects of different endurance exercise modalities on migraine days and cerebrovascular health in episodic migraineurs: A randomized controlled trial.

Aerobic exercise training is a promising complementary treatment option in migraine and can reduce migraine days and improve retinal microvascular function. Our aim was to elucidate whether different aerobic exercise programs at high vs moderate intensities distinctly affect migraine days as primary outcome and retinal vessel parameters as a secondary. In this randomized controlled trial, migraine days were recorded by a validated migraine diary in 45 migraineurs of which 36 (female: 28; age: 36 (SD:10)/BMI: 23.1 (5.3) completed the training period (dropout: 20%). Participants were assigned (Strata: age, gender, fitness and migraine symptomatology) to either high intensity interval training (HIT), moderate continuous training (MCT), or a control group (CON). Intervention groups trained twice a week over a 12-week intervention period. Static retinal vessel analysis, central retinal arteriolar (CRAE) and venular (CRVE) diameters, as well as the arteriolar-to-venular diameter ratio (AVR) were obtained for cerebrovascular health assessment. Incremental treadmill testing yielded maximal and submaximal fitness parameters. Overall, moderate migraine day reductions were observed (ηP2 = .12): HIT revealed 89% likely beneficial effects (SMD = 1.05) compared to MCT (SMD = 0.50) and CON (SMD = 0.59). Very large intervention effects on AVR improvement (ηP2 = 0.27), slightly favoring HIT (SMD=-0.43) over CON (SMD=0), were observed. HIT seems more effective for migraine day reduction and improvement of cerebrovascular health compared to MCT. Intermittent exercise programs of higher intensities may need to be considered as an additional treatment option in migraine patients.

Regulation of fusion activity by the cytoplasmic domain of a paramyxovirus F protein.

SER virus is a member of the family Paramyxoviridae, genus Rubulavirus, which has been isolated from pigs. It is very closely related to SV5 virus serologically, in protein profile, and in nucleotide sequence. However, unlike SV5, SER induces minimal syncytium formation in infected CV-1 or BHK cells. Fluorescence transfer experiments between labeled erythrocytes and infected MDBK cells revealed that SER also induces hemifusion and pore formation with reduced efficiency. The virion polypeptide profiles of SER and SV5 are very similar, except that the SER F1 subunit shows an apparent molecular weight that is about 2 kDa higher than that of SV5. Comparison of the deduced amino acid sequences revealed the SER F (551 aa) to be longer than SV5 F (529 aa) by 22 residues in the cytoplasmic tail (CT) domain. The HN and M gene sequences of the viruses were found to be very similar. The SER F showed minimal fusion activity when coexpressed with either SV5 or SER HN. In contrast, SV5 F was highly fusogenic when coexpressed with either HN protein, indicating that the restricted fusion capacity of SER virus is a property of its F protein. Truncation in the CT of SER F by 22 residues completely rescued its ability to cause syncytium formation, whereas other truncations rescued syncytium formation partially. These results demonstrate that an elongated CT of a paramyxovirus F protein suppresses its membrane fusion activity.