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Age-related decreased inhibitory vs. excitatory gene expression in the adult autistic brain

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and restricted behavior and interests. A disruption in the balance of excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmission has been hypothesized to underlie these disorders. Here...

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Autores principales: van de Lagemaat, Louie N., Nijhof, Bonnie, Bosch, Daniëlle G. M., Kohansal-Nodehi, Mahdokht, Keerthikumar, Shivakumar, Heimel, J. Alexander
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4259106/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25538548
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2014.00394
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author van de Lagemaat, Louie N.
Nijhof, Bonnie
Bosch, Daniëlle G. M.
Kohansal-Nodehi, Mahdokht
Keerthikumar, Shivakumar
Heimel, J. Alexander
author_facet van de Lagemaat, Louie N.
Nijhof, Bonnie
Bosch, Daniëlle G. M.
Kohansal-Nodehi, Mahdokht
Keerthikumar, Shivakumar
Heimel, J. Alexander
author_sort van de Lagemaat, Louie N.
collection PubMed
description Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and restricted behavior and interests. A disruption in the balance of excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmission has been hypothesized to underlie these disorders. Here we demonstrate that genes of both pathways are affected by ASD, and that gene expression of inhibitory and excitatory genes is altered in the cerebral cortex of adult but not younger autistic individuals. We have developed a measure for the difference in the level of excitation and inhibition based on gene expression and observe that in this measure inhibition is decreased relative to excitation in adult ASD compared to control. This difference was undetectable in young autistic brains. Given that many psychiatric features of autism are already present at an early age, this suggests that the observed imbalance in gene expression is an aging phenomenon in ASD rather than its underlying cause.
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spelling pubmed-42591062014-12-23 Age-related decreased inhibitory vs. excitatory gene expression in the adult autistic brain van de Lagemaat, Louie N. Nijhof, Bonnie Bosch, Daniëlle G. M. Kohansal-Nodehi, Mahdokht Keerthikumar, Shivakumar Heimel, J. Alexander Front Neurosci Genetics Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and restricted behavior and interests. A disruption in the balance of excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmission has been hypothesized to underlie these disorders. Here we demonstrate that genes of both pathways are affected by ASD, and that gene expression of inhibitory and excitatory genes is altered in the cerebral cortex of adult but not younger autistic individuals. We have developed a measure for the difference in the level of excitation and inhibition based on gene expression and observe that in this measure inhibition is decreased relative to excitation in adult ASD compared to control. This difference was undetectable in young autistic brains. Given that many psychiatric features of autism are already present at an early age, this suggests that the observed imbalance in gene expression is an aging phenomenon in ASD rather than its underlying cause. Frontiers Media S.A. 2014-12-08 /pmc/articles/PMC4259106/ /pubmed/25538548 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2014.00394 Text en Copyright © 2014 van de Lagemaat, Nijhof, Bosch, Kohansal-Nodehi, Keerthikumar and Heimel. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Genetics
van de Lagemaat, Louie N.
Nijhof, Bonnie
Bosch, Daniëlle G. M.
Kohansal-Nodehi, Mahdokht
Keerthikumar, Shivakumar
Heimel, J. Alexander
Age-related decreased inhibitory vs. excitatory gene expression in the adult autistic brain
title Age-related decreased inhibitory vs. excitatory gene expression in the adult autistic brain
title_full Age-related decreased inhibitory vs. excitatory gene expression in the adult autistic brain
title_fullStr Age-related decreased inhibitory vs. excitatory gene expression in the adult autistic brain
title_full_unstemmed Age-related decreased inhibitory vs. excitatory gene expression in the adult autistic brain
title_short Age-related decreased inhibitory vs. excitatory gene expression in the adult autistic brain
title_sort age-related decreased inhibitory vs. excitatory gene expression in the adult autistic brain
topic Genetics
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4259106/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25538548
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2014.00394
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