Abstract
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a category of neurodevelopmental disturbances seriously affecting social skills, to which the scientific community has paid great attention in last decades. To date, their pathogenesis is still unknown, but several studies highlighted the relevance of gene-environment interactions in the onset of ASD. In addition, an immune involvement was seen in a wide number of ASD subjects, leading several researchers to hypothesize a possible common pathogenesis between ASD and immune disturbances, including Atopic Dermatitis (AD). In general, among potential contributing factors, microRNAs (miRNAs), small molecules capable of controlling gene expression and targeting mRNA transcripts, might represent one of the major circulating link, possibly unraveling the connections between neurodevelopmental and immune conditions. Under such premises, we conducted a systematic literature review, under the PRISMA guidelines, trying to define the panel of common miRNAs involved in both ASD and AD. The review retrieved articles published between January 1, 2005, and December 13, 2018, in PubMed, ScienceDirect, PsycARTICLES, and Google Scholar. We found a handful of works dealing with miRNAs in ASD and AD, with the most overlapping dysregulated miRNAs being miR-146 and miR-155. Two possible compounds are abnormally regulated in both ASD and AD subjects, possibly cross-contributing to the interactions between the two disorders, setting the basis to investigate more precisely the possible link between ASD and AD from another, not just clinical, perspective.
Highlights
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a heterogeneous group of neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by impairments in social interaction and communication and restricted or stereotyped interests and behaviors [1], typically occurring before the fourth year of life [2]
We will first present the results from the literature review and discuss the possible associations between miRNAs in ASD and Atopic Dermatitis (AD) according to such findings
Beside the robust clinical evidence for the association between atopy and ASD, an intriguing neuroinflammatory hypothesis has been advanced for ASD, involving the disruption of the brain blood barrier induced by inflammatory molecules, brain mast cell activation, and mast cells-microglia interactions [99]
Summary
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a heterogeneous group of neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by impairments in social interaction and communication and restricted or stereotyped interests and behaviors [1], typically occurring before the fourth year of life [2]. There has been an increased attention of the scientific community towards this group of conditions, with a consequent improvement in the knowledge about this topic, and contextually, a broadening of the diagnostic criteria [3,4]. ASD is the most heritable among neuropsychiatric disorders, with genetic contributions accounting for around 80% of ASD risk [5,6,7,8,9], and higher risk is seen in siblings of autistic children [10]. Epidemiological studies provide information on the genetic contribution to.
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