Modeling Autism-Related Disorders in Mice with Maternal Immune Activation (MIA)

Methods in Molecular Biology
Catherine R Lammert, John R Lukens

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has emerged as one of the most prevalent and poorly understood disorders of our time. The etiology of autism currently remains poorly understood; however, emerging clinical and experimental evidence suggests central roles for maternal immune activation (MIA) during pregnancy in ASD. In particular, children whose mothers suffered from an infectious disease or other inflammatory conditions during pregnancy are at a substantially higher risk of developing ASD. It has been shown that MIA-induced ASD can be modeled by treating pregnant mice with the viral mimetic polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid (PolyI:C) during key neurodevelopmental time points. In this paradigm, PolyI:C treatment induces systemic inflammatory responses that model MIA during viral infections. Offspring from PolyI:C-treated mothers develop many of the defining features of ASD including defects in social interactions, communicative impairments, and repetitive/stereotyped behaviors, as well as neuropathologies that are commonly observed in human ASD. While the early use of this emerging ASD model system has provided important initial insights into the involvement of gestational immune dysfunction in neurodevelopmental disorder pathogenes...Continue Reading

Citations

Dec 29, 2020·Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews·Emilia CarboneViviana Trezza
Apr 28, 2021·Translational Psychiatry·Laiana A QuagliatoAntonio E Nardi
Jun 6, 2021·Psychopharmacology·Thiago Garcia VargaTatiana Rosado Rosenstock

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