Shared Molecular Genetic Mechanisms Underlie Endometriosis and Migraine Comorbidity

Adewuyi, Emmanuel O., Sapkota, Yadav, International Endogene Consortium (IEC), 23andMe Research Team, International Headache Genetics Consortium (IHGC), Auta, Asa orcid iconORCID: 0000-0001-6515-5802, Yoshihara, Kosuke, Nyegaard, Mette, Griffiths, Lyn R. et al (2020) Shared Molecular Genetic Mechanisms Underlie Endometriosis and Migraine Comorbidity. Genes, 11 (3). e268. ISSN 2073-4425

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.3390/genes11030268

Abstract

Observational epidemiological studies indicate that endometriosis and migraine co-occur within individuals more than expected by chance. However, the aetiology and biological mechanisms underlying their comorbidity remain unknown. Here we examined the relationship between endometriosis and migraine using genome-wide association study (GWAS) data. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) effect concordance analysis found a significant concordance of SNP risk effects across endometriosis and migraine GWAS. Linkage disequilibrium score regression analysis found a positive and highly significant genetic correlation (rG = 0.38, P = 2.30 × 10−25) between endometriosis and migraine. A meta-analysis of endometriosis and migraine GWAS data did not reveal novel genome-wide significant SNPs, and Mendelian randomisation analysis found no evidence for a causal relationship between the two traits. However, gene-based analyses identified two novel loci for migraine. Also, we found significant enrichment of genes nominally associated (Pgene 0.05) with both traits (Pbinomial-test = 9.83 × 10−6). Combining gene-based p-values across endometriosis and migraine, three genes, two (TRIM32 and SLC35G6) of which are at novel loci, were genome-wide significant. Genes having Pgene 0.1 for both endometriosis and migraine (Pbinomial-test = 1.85 ×10−°3) were significantly enriched for biological pathways, including interleukin-1 receptor binding, focal adhesion-PI3K-Akt-mTOR-signaling, MAPK and TNF-α signalling. Our findings further confirm the comorbidity of endometriosis and migraine and indicate a non-causal relationship between the two traits, with shared genetically-controlled biological mechanisms underlying the co-occurrence of the two disorders.


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