Project description:Gene expression in blood of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was studied. Transcriptional profiles were compared with age and gender matched, typically developing children from the general population (GP) or IQ matched children with mental retardation or developmental delay (MR/DD). Keywords: autism analysis
Project description:To assess the clinical impact of splice-altering noncoding mutations in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), we used a deep learning framework (SpliceAI) to predict the splice-altering potential of de novo mutations in 3,953 individuals with ASD from the Simons Simplex Collection. To validate these predictions, we selected 36 individuals that harbored predicted de-novo cryptic splice mutations; each individual represented the only case of autism within their immediate family. We obtained peripheral blood-derived lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) and performed high-depth mRNA sequencing (approximately 350 million 150 bp single-end reads per sample). We used OLego to align the reads against a reference created from hg19 by substituting de novo variants of each individual with the corresponding alternate allele.
Project description:Gene expression in blood of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was studied. Transcriptional profiles were compared with age and gender matched, typically developing children from the general population (GP) or IQ matched children with mental retardation or developmental delay (MR/DD). Experiment Overall Design: Transcriptional profiles were compared with age and gender matched, typically developing children from the general population (GP) or IQ matched children with mental retardation or developmental delay (MR/DD)
Project description:Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by social communication deficits and repetitive behaviors. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been recently recognized as potential biomarkers of ASD as they are dysregulated in various tissues of individuals with ASD. However, it remains unclear whether miRNA expression is altered in individuals with high-functioning ASD. Here, we investigated the miRNA expression profile in peripheral blood from adults with high-functioning ASD, and age and gender-matched healthy controls. Our findings may provide insights regarding the molecular clues for recognizing high-functioning ASD.
Project description:Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental condition with a strong genetic link, but no single well-established cause. This suggests that perturbed regulatory network may better explain its heterogeneity of phenotypes and multiple gene associations. Consistently, our previous study provided evidence of abnormal alternative polyadenylation in transcripts from distinct brain regions suggesting a potential imbalance in the protein synthesis in the postsynaptic density. To test this hypothesis, we studied transcriptome-wide alterations of mRNA translation in post-mortem brain samples from neurotypical and ASD-affected young males subjects. To this end, we employed an optimised polysome profiling technique amendable for small tissue samples and analyzed changes in the translatome using the anota2seq algorithm. The analysis revealed bolstered translation of mRNAs whose translational efficiency was previously reported to be sensitive to eIF4E, a key factor for synaptic protein synthesis modulated by Ras/ERK and PI3K/mTOR signaling pathways. This observation is consistent with previous findings linking hyperactive eIF4E to increased translation of neuroligins, a disturbed excitation/inhibition ratio in synapses and autistic-like phenotypes in mice. In summary, we reveal a link between eIF4E-dependent translation and human autism, indicating a potential pharmacy-therapeutical target for the prevention of behavioral impairments in ASD.
Project description:Chromosomal abnormalities have been identified in some individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), but their full etiologic role is unknown. Submicroscopic copy number variation (CNV) represents a considerable source of genetic variation in the human genome that contributes to phenotypic differences and disease susceptibility. To explore the contribution CNV imbalances in ASD, we genotyped unrelated ASD index cases using the Affymetrix GeneChip® 500K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) mapping array. Keywords: Whole Genome Mapping SNP Genotyping Array