Determination of 8-OHdG and IL-6 Levels, and of APE1 and XRCC1 DNA Repair Gene Variants, in Patients with Migraine

Background and Objectives: Migraine is a chronic, throbbing type of headache that affects large populations worldwide. This condition is associated with neuroinflammation. Materials and Methods: In this study, polymorphism analyses were performed by KASP PCR. Serum interleukin-6 (IL-6) and 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) levels were measured using kits based on the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) principle. Results: In the APE1 Asp148Glu (rs1130409) gene polymorphism analysis, the frequency of the mutant G (Glu) allele was 93.1% and 48.0% in the control and migraine populations, respectively, while the frequency of the wild-type T (Asp) allele was 6.9% and 52.0% (p < 0.001). The frequency of the T/T (Asp/Asp) genotype was high in the migraine group (p < 0.001), while the frequency of the G/G (Glu/Glu) genotype was higher in the control group at 86.2%, compared to the migraine group (p < 0.001). The total frequency of the T/G+ G/G (Asp/Glu+Glu/Glu) composite genotype was determined to be 65.9% in the control group and 34.1% in the migraine group (p < 0.001). There was no statistical difference in allele and genotype frequency between the control and migraine groups for the XRCC1 Arg399Gln (rs25487) gene polymorphism. Serum 8-OHdG and IL-6 levels were comparable between the groups, with no statistically significant differences observed. Conclusions: Future studies with larger and more homogeneous populations are needed to further elucidate the potential interactions between inflammatory processes and DNA damage in migraine. Consideration of attack duration and environmental exposures may improve interpretation of biomarker variability. Expanding the analysis to additional DNA repair gene polymorphisms may also contribute to a better understanding of the molecular background of migraine and the evaluation of potential biomarkers.