Yang Yang, Jiaxiang Wu, Jingliang Zhang, Xiaoling Chen, Zhefu Que, Kyle Wettschurack, Brody Deming, Maria Acosta, Ningren Cui, Muriel Eaton, Yuanrui Zhao, Manasi Halurkar, Mandal Purba, Ian Chen, Tiange Xiao, Matthew Suzuki, Chongli Yuan, Ranjie Xu, Wendy Koss, Dongshu Du, Fuxue Chen, Long-Jun Wu
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a major neurodevelopmental disorder affecting 1 in 36 children in the United States. While neurons have been the focus to understand 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...
September 28, 2023: Research Square