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Migraine is a common disabling neurovascular brain disorder typically characterised by attacks of severe headache and associated with autonomic and neurological symptoms. Migraine is caused by an interplay of genetic and environmental factors. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified over a dozen genetic loci associated with migraine. Here, we integrated migraine GWAS data with high-resolution spatial gene expression data of normal adult brains from the Allen Human Brain Atlas to identify specific brain regions and molecular pathways that are possibly involved in migraine pathophysiology. To this end, we used two complementary methods. In GWAS data from 23,285 migraine cases and 95,425 controls, we first studied modules of co-expressed genes that were calculated based on human brain expression data for enrichment of genes that showed association with migraine. Enrichment of a migraine GWAS signal was found for five modules that suggest involvement in migraine pathophysiology of: (i) neurotransmission, protein catabolism and mitochondria in the cortex; (ii) transcription regulation in the cortex and cerebellum; and (iii) oligodendrocytes and mitochondria in subcortical areas. Second, we used the high-confidence genes from the migraine GWAS as a basis to construct local migraine-related co-expression gene networks. Signatures of all brain regions and pathways that were prominent in the first method also surfaced in the second method, thus providing support that these brain regions and pathways are indeed involved in migraine pathophysiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There has been intensive debate whether migraine with aura (MA) and migraine without aura (MO) shouldbe considered distinct subtypes or part of the same disease spectrum. There is also discussion to what extent migrainecases collected in specialised headache clinics differ from cases from population cohorts, and how female cases differfrom male cases with respect to their migraine. To assess the genetic overlap between these migraine subgroups, weexamined genome-wide association (GWA) results from analysis of 23,285 migraine cases and 95,425 populationmatchedcontrols.Methods: Detailed heterogeneity analysis of single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) effects (odds ratios) between migrainesubgroups was performed for the 12 independent SNP loci significantly associated (p<5x10-8; thus surpassing thethreshold for genome-wide significance) with migraine susceptibility. Overall genetic overlap was assessed using SNPeffect concordance analysis (SECA) at over 23,000 independent SNPs.Results: Significant heterogeneity of SNP effects (phet<1.4x10-3) was observed between the MA and MO subgroups(for SNP rs9349379), and between the clinic- and population-based subgroups (for SNPs rs10915437, rs6790925 andrs6478241). However, for all 12 SNPs the risk-increasing allele was the same, and SECA found the majority of genomewideSNP effects to be in the same direction across the subgroups.Conclusions: Any differences in common genetic risk across these subgroups are outweighed by the similarities. Metaanalysisof additional migraine GWA datasets, regardless of their major subgroup composition, will identify new susceptibilityloci for migraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]