Jiaxiang Wu, Jingliang Zhang, Xiaoling Chen, Kyle Wettschurack, Zhefu Que, Brody A Deming, Maria I Olivero-Acosta, Ningren Cui, Muriel Eaton, Yuanrui Zhao, Sophia M Li, Matthew Suzuki, Ian Chen, Tiange Xiao, Manasi S Halurkar, Purba Mandal, Chongli Yuan, Ranjie Xu, Wendy A Koss, Dongshu Du, Fuxue Chen, Long-Jun Wu, Yang Yang
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a major neurodevelopmental disorder affecting 1 in 36 children in the United States. While neurons have been the focus of understanding ASD, an altered neuro-immune response in the brain may be closely associated with ASD, and a neuro-immune interaction could play a role in the disease progression. As the resident immune cells of the brain, microglia regulate brain development and homeostasis via core functions including phagocytosis of synapses. While ASD has been traditionally considered a polygenic disorder, recent large-scale human genetic studies have identified SCN2A deficiency as a leading monogenic cause of ASD and intellectual disability...
March 18, 2024: Molecular Psychiatry