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IntroductionThe genetic association between depression and migraine has not been well investigated in Asian populations. Furthermore, the genetic basis of depression and comorbid migraine subtypes remains nebulous. Hence, in the current study we investigate the susceptibility loci associated with depression and migraine comorbidity in the Han Chinese population in Taiwan.MethodsWe perform a genome-wide association study involving 966 migraine patients, with or without comorbid depression. Genotyping is performed using participant genomic DNA. Association analyses are performed for the entire migraine cohort (subgroups: episodic migraine, chronic migraine, and migraine with or without aura).ResultsResults show that the single nucleotide polymorphism variants of the CDH4 intron region (rs78063755), NTRK3-AS1 downstream region (rs57729223), and between LINC01918 and GPR45 (rs2679891) are suggestively associated with depression. Twenty additional susceptibility loci occur within the subgroups. A multivariate association study demonstrated that a variant in the intron region of CDH4 rs78063755 was associated with Beck Depression Inventory and Migraine Disability Assessment scores.DiscussionThe findings of this study identify several genetic loci suggestively associated with depression among migraine patients in the Han Chinese population. Moreover, a potential genetic basis has been characterized for depression and migraine comorbidity, thus providing genetic candidates for further investigation.

The systematic design of functional peptides has technological and therapeutic applications. However, there is a need for pattern-based search engines that help locate desired functional motifs in primary sequences regardless of their evolutionary conservation. Existing databases such as The Protein Secondary Structure database (PSS) no longer serves the community, while the Dictionary of Protein Secondary Structure (DSSP) annotates the secondary structures when tertiary structures of proteins are provided. Here, we extract 1.7 million helices from the PDB and compile them into a database (Therapeutic Peptide Design database; TP-DB) that allows queries of compounded patterns to facilitate the identification of sequence motifs of helical structures. We show how TP-DB helps us identify a known purification-tag-specific antibody that can be repurposed into a diagnostic kit for Helicobacter pylori. We also show how the database can be used to design a new antimicrobial peptide that shows better Candida albicans clearance and lower hemolysis than its template homologs. Finally, we demonstrate how TP-DB can suggest point mutations in helical peptide blockers to prevent a targeted tumorigenic protein-protein interaction. TP-DB is made available at http://dyn.life.nthu.edu.tw/design/., Here, we present TP-DB; a pattern-based search engine based on 1.67 million helices from the Protein Database (PDB). We demonstrate the utility of TP-DB in identifying microbe-specific antigens, as well as the design of antimicrobial peptides and Protein-protein interaction blockers.

Additional file 1: Supplementary Table 1. Functional Clustering Analysis of genes of candidate variants