Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) patients commonly exhibit a variety of comorbid traits including seizures, anxiety, aggressive behavior, gastrointestinal problems, motor deficits, abnormal sensory processing, and sleep disturbances for which the cause is unknown. These features impact negatively on daily life and can exaggerate the effects of the core diagnostic traits (social communication deficits and repetitive behaviors). Studying endophenotypes relevant to both core and comorbid features of ASD in rodent models can provide insight into biological mechanisms underlying these disorders. Here we review the characterization of endophenotypes in a selection of environmental, genetic, and behavioral rodent models of ASD. In addition to exhibiting core ASD-like behaviors, each of these animal models display one or more endophenotypes relevant to comorbid features including altered sensory processing, seizure susceptibility, anxiety-like behavior, and disturbed motor functions, suggesting that these traits are indicators of altered biological pathways in ASD. However, the study of behaviors paralleling comorbid traits in animal models of ASD is an emerging field and further research is needed to assess altered gastrointestinal function, aggression, and disorders of sleep onset across models. Future studies should include investigation of these endophenotypes in order to advance our understanding of the etiology of this complex disorder.
Highlights
Many gene mutations identified in patients with ASD affect synaptic function (Betancur et al, 2009; Bourgeron, 2009; Betancur, 2011). This supports an emerging hypothesis that ASD is primarily a disorder of neuronal communication (Grabrucker et al, 2011; Ebert and Greenberg, 2013) and we suggest that subtle changes in neural function could underlie many of the comorbid traits described here
In order to achieve these goals, a more consistent approach in the assessment and comparison of endophenotypes is needed
Summary
Reviewed by: Wah Chin Boon, Florey Neuroscience Institutes, Australia Thomas Burne, Queensland Brain Institute, Australia. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) patients commonly exhibit a variety of comorbid traits including seizures, anxiety, aggressive behavior, gastrointestinal problems, motor deficits, abnormal sensory processing, and sleep disturbances for which the cause is unknown. These features impact negatively on daily life and can exaggerate the effects of the core diagnostic traits (social communication deficits and repetitive behaviors). ASD: COMORBID TRAITS Comorbid traits in ASD include seizures, heightened aggression, and anxiety disorders as well as gastrointestinal problems, altered sensory processing, motor deficits, and sleep disorders (Table 1) While treatment of these issues can significantly improve quality of life for patients and their families, the biological mechanisms underlying these symptoms and their co-expression are generally unknown in the context of ASD.
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