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

Yanjun Guo*, Pamela M. Rist, Iyas Daghlas, Franco Giulianini, Padhraig Gormley, Verneri Anttila, Bendik S. Winsvold, Priit Palta, Tonu Esko, Tune H. Pers, Kai How Farh, Ester Cuenca-Leon, Mikko Muona, Nicholas A. Furlotte, Tobias Kurth, Andres Ingason, George McMahon, Lannie Ligthart, Gisela M. Terwindt, Mikko KallelaTobias M. Freilinger, Caroline Ran, Scott G. Gordon, Anine H. Stam, Stacy Steinberg, Guntram Borck, Markku Koiranen, Lydia Quaye, Hieab H.H. Adams, Terho Lehtimäki, Antti Pekka Sarin, Juho Wedenoja, David A. Hinds, Julie E. Buring, Markus Schürks, Paul M. Ridker, Maria Gudlaug Hrafnsdottir, Hreinn Stefansson, Susan M. Ring, Jouke Jan Hottenga, Brenda W.J.H. Penninx, Markus Färkkilä, Ville Artto, Mari Kaunisto, Salli Vepsäläinen, Rainer Malik, Anne Francke Christensen, Thomas Folkmann Hansen, Thomas Werge, Jes Olesen, The International Headache Genetics Consortium, the 23andMe Research Team

*Corresponding author for this work

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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.

Original languageEnglish
Article number3368
JournalNature Communications
Volume11
Issue number1
ISSN2041-1723
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020

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