A genome-wide cross-phenotype meta-analysis of the association of blood pressure with migraine

Nat Commun. 2020 Jul 6;11(1):3368. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-17002-0.

Abstract

Blood pressure (BP) was inconsistently associated with migraine and the mechanisms of BP-lowering medications in migraine prophylaxis are unknown. Leveraging large-scale summary statistics for migraine (Ncases/Ncontrols = 59,674/316,078) and BP (N = 757,601), we find positive genetic correlations of migraine with diastolic BP (DBP, rg = 0.11, P = 3.56 × 10-06) and systolic BP (SBP, rg = 0.06, P = 0.01), but not pulse pressure (PP, rg = -0.01, P = 0.75). Cross-trait meta-analysis reveals 14 shared loci (P ≤ 5 × 10-08), nine of which replicate (P < 0.05) in the UK Biobank. Five shared loci (ITGB5, SMG6, ADRA2B, ANKDD1B, and KIAA0040) are reinforced in gene-level analysis and highlight potential mechanisms involving vascular development, endothelial function and calcium homeostasis. Mendelian randomization reveals stronger instrumental estimates of DBP (OR [95% CI] = 1.20 [1.15-1.25]/10 mmHg; P = 5.57 × 10-25) on migraine than SBP (1.05 [1.03-1.07]/10 mmHg; P = 2.60 × 10-07) and a corresponding opposite effect for PP (0.92 [0.88-0.95]/10 mmHg; P = 3.65 × 10-07). These findings support a critical role of DBP in migraine susceptibility and shared biology underlying BP and migraine.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Blood Pressure / genetics*
  • Genetic Predisposition to Disease / genetics*
  • Genome-Wide Association Study / methods*
  • Humans
  • Hypertension / genetics
  • Integrin beta Chains / genetics
  • Mendelian Randomization Analysis / methods
  • Meta-Analysis as Topic*
  • Migraine Disorders / genetics*
  • Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide*
  • Proteins / genetics
  • Receptors, Adrenergic, alpha-2 / genetics
  • Risk Factors
  • Telomerase / genetics

Substances

  • ADRA2B protein, human
  • ITGB5 protein, human
  • Integrin beta Chains
  • KIAA0040 protein, human
  • Proteins
  • Receptors, Adrenergic, alpha-2
  • Telomerase
  • SMG6 protein, human