Dataset Information

Autism spectrum disorder diagnosis in adults: phenotype and genotype findings from a clinically derived cohort.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:The past decade has seen the development of services for adults presenting with symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the UK. Compared with children, little is known about the phenotypic and genetic characteristics of these patients.AimsThis e-cohort study aimed to examine the phenotypic and genetic characteristics of a clinically presenting sample of adults diagnosed with ASD by specialist services. METHOD:Individuals diagnosed with ASD as adults were recruited by the National Centre for Mental Health and completed self-report questionnaires, interviews and provided DNA; 105 eligible individuals were matched to 76 healthy controls. We investigated demographics, social history and comorbid psychiatric and physical disorders. Samples were genotyped, copy number variants (CNVs) were called and polygenic risk scores were calculated. RESULTS:Of individuals with ASD, 89.5% had at least one comorbid psychiatric diagnosis, with depression (62.9%) and anxiety (55.2%) being the most common. The ASD group experienced more neurological comorbidities than controls, particularly migraine headache. They were less likely to have married or be in work, and had more alcohol-related problems. There was a significantly higher load of autism common genetic variants in the adult ASD group compared with controls, but there was no difference in the rate of rare CNVs. CONCLUSIONS:This study provides important information about psychiatric comorbidity in adult ASD, which may inform clinical practice and patient counselling. It also suggests that the polygenic load of common ASD-associated variants may be important in conferring risk within the non-intellectually disabled population of adults with ASD.Declaration of interestNone.

SUBMITTER: Underwood JFG

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6949119 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Autism spectrum disorder diagnosis in adults: phenotype and genotype findings from a clinically derived cohort.

Underwood Jack F G JFG Kendall Kimberley M KM Berrett Jennifer J Lewis Catrin C Anney Richard R van den Bree Marianne B M MBM Hall Jeremy J

The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science 20191101 5

<h4>Background</h4>The past decade has seen the development of services for adults presenting with symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the UK. Compared with children, little is known about the phenotypic and genetic characteristics of these patients.<h4>Aims</h4>This e-cohort study aimed to examine the phenotypic and genetic characteristics of a clinically presenting sample of adults diagnosed with ASD by specialist services.<h4>Method</h4>Individuals diagnosed with ASD as adults were ...[more]

PMID: 30806336

Similar Datasets

Project description:Amygdala dysfunction has been implicated in numerous neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Previous studies in mice and humans, respectively, have linked Pac1r/PAC1R function to social behavior and PTSD-susceptibility. Based on this connection to social and emotional processing and the central role played by the amygdala in ASD, we examined a putative role for PAC1R in social deficits in ASD and determined the pattern of gene expression in the developing mouse and human amygdala. We reveal that Pac1r/PAC1R is expressed in both mouse and human amygdala from mid-neurogenesis through early postnatal stages, critical time points when altered brain trajectories are hypothesized to unfold in ASD. We further find that parents of autistic children carrying a previously identified PTSD-risk genotype (CC) report greater reciprocal social deficits compared to those carrying the non-risk GC genotype. Additionally, by exploring resting-state functional connectivity differences in a subsample of the larger behavioral sample, we find higher functional connectivity between the amygdala and right middle temporal gyrus in individuals with the CC risk genotype. Thus, using multimodal approaches, our data reveal that the amygdala-expressed PAC1R gene may be linked to severity of ASD social phenotype and possible alterations in brain connectivity, therefore potentially acting as a modifier of amygdala-related phenotypes. Autism Res 2019, 12: 200-211 © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: In this multimodal study across mouse and human, we examined expression patterns of Pac1r/PAC1R, a gene implicated in social behavior, and further explored whether a previously identified human PTSD-linked mutation in PAC1R can predict brain connectivity and social deficits in ASD. We find that PAC1R is highly expressed in the both the mouse and human amygdala. Furthermore, our human data suggest that PAC1R genotype is linked to severity of social deficits and functional amygdala connectivity in ASD.

Project description:BackgroundPhelan-McDermid syndrome (PMS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with a terminal deletion affecting chromosome 22 (22q13) that results in the loss of function of the SHANK3 gene. SHANK3 has also been identified in gene-linkage studies to be associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Diagnosis of ASD in individuals with PMS is complicated by the presence of moderate to profound global developmental delay/intellectual disability as well as other co-morbid systemic and neurological symptoms.MethodsThe current study aimed to characterize the symptoms of ASD in patients with PMS and to do a preliminary exploration of genotype-ASD phenotype correlations. We conducted a standardized interview with 40 parents/guardians of children with PMS. Further, we conducted analyses on the relationship between disruption of SHANK3 and adjacent genes on specific characteristic symptoms of ASD in PMS in small subset of the sample.ResultsThe majority of PMS participants in our sample displayed persistent deficits in Social communication, but only half met diagnostic criteria under the restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities domain. Furthermore, logistic regressions indicated that general developmental delay significantly contributed to the ASD diagnosis. The analyses relating the PMS genotype to the behavioral phenotype revealed additional complex relationships with contributions of genes in both deleted and preserved SHANK3 regions to the ASD phenotype and other neurobehavioral impairments.ConclusionsThere appears to be a unique behavioral phenotype associated with ASD in individuals with PMS. There also appears to be contributions of genes in both deleted and preserved SHANK3 regions to the ASD phenotype and other neurobehavioral impairments. Better characterization of the behavioral phenotype using additional standardized assessments and further analyses exploring the relationship between the PMS genotype and behavioral phenotype in a larger sample are warranted.

Dataset Information

Autism spectrum disorder diagnosis in adults: phenotype and genotype findings from a clinically derived cohort.

Publications

Autism spectrum disorder diagnosis in adults: phenotype and genotype findings from a clinically derived cohort.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets