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Molecular genetic overlap between migraine and major depressive disorder

  • The International Headache Genetics Consortium
  • Queensland University of Technology
  • University of Queensland
  • Sun Yat-Sen University
  • Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
  • Karolinska Institutet
  • University of Bristol
  • Broad Institute
  • University of Tartu
  • Boston Children's Hospital
  • University of Tübingen
  • Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
  • University of Copenhagen
  • Erasmus University Rotterdam
  • Helsinki University Hospital
  • University of Hamburg
  • King's College London
  • St. George's University of London
  • University of Helsinki
  • Folkhalsan
  • Massachusetts General Hospital
  • Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
  • University of Oslo
  • Statens Serum Institut
  • Illumina, Inc.
  • Vall d'Hebron Research Institute
  • 23andMe Inc.
  • Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
  • Brigham and Women’s Hospital
  • deCODE Genetics
  • Leiden University
  • Queensland Institute of Medical Research
  • Ulm University
  • University of Oulu
  • Fimlab Laboratories
  • Harvard University
  • University of Duisburg-Essen
  • Landspitali University Hospital
  • VU University Medical Center
  • Washington University St. Louis
  • University of Eastern Finland
  • University of Groningen
  • University of Oxford
  • John Radcliffe Hospital
  • Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry
  • University of Liverpool
  • Kiel University
  • Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health
  • Technical University of Munich
  • National Institute for Health and Welfare
  • Norwegian Institute of Public Health
  • Kiel Pain and Headache Center
  • MHC Sct. Hans
  • H. Lundbeck A/S
  • University of Turku
  • Imperial College London
  • Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (SyNergy)
  • University of Iceland

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Migraine and major depressive disorder (MDD) are common brain disorders that frequently co-occur. Despite epidemiological evidence that migraine and MDD share a genetic basis, their overlap at the molecular genetic level has not been thoroughly investigated. Using single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and gene-based analysis of genome-wide association study (GWAS) genotype data, we found significant genetic overlap across the two disorders. LD Score regression revealed a significant SNP-based heritability for both migraine (h2= 12%) and MDD (h2= 19%), and a significant cross-disorder genetic correlation (rG= 0.25; P = 0.04). Meta-analysis of results for 8,045,569 SNPs from a migraine GWAS (comprising 30,465 migraine cases and 143,147 control samples) and the top 10,000 SNPs from a MDD GWAS (comprising 75,607 MDD cases and 231,747 healthy controls), implicated three SNPs (rs146377178, rs672931, and rs11858956) with novel genome-wide significant association (PSNP≤ 5 × 10−8) to migraine and MDD. Moreover, gene-based association analyses revealed significant enrichment of genes nominally associated (Pgene-based≤ 0.05) with both migraine and MDD (Pbinomial-test= 0.001). Combining results across migraine and MDD, two genes, ANKDD1B and KCNK5, produced Fisher’s combined gene-based P values that surpassed the genome-wide significance threshold (PFisher’s-combined≤ 3.6 × 10−6). Pathway analysis of genes with PFisher’s-combined≤ 1 × 10−3suggested several pathways, foremost neural-related pathways of signalling and ion channel regulation, to be involved in migraine and MDD aetiology. In conclusion, our study provides strong molecular genetic support for shared genetically determined biological mechanisms underlying migraine and MDD.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1202-1216
Number of pages15
JournalEuropean Journal of Human Genetics
Volume26
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Aug 2018
Externally publishedYes

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