DECRYPTION – In 10% of cases, the disorder is associated with the presence in utero of maternal autoantibodies directed against brain proteins.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which results from a brain development disorder beginning during the in utero period, is associated in more than 10% of cases with the presence of maternal autoantibodies directed against brain proteins. , according to an American study conducted at the University of California, Davis, published at the end of May in Nature . “This solid and interesting work reinforces the notion that ASD is linked to a complex combination of factors, both genetic and non-genetic,” underlines the Pr Frédérique Bonnet-Brilhault, head of the child psychiatry department at the University Hospital of Tours.
Read alsoIn 1938, a strange syndrome that will be called “autism”
Autism spectrum disorder is characterized by early onset deficits in communication and social interaction as well as repetitive and stereotyped behaviors. It concerns one in sixty births in France. As early as 2008, Judy Van de Water’s team suggested that autoantibodies directed against certain fetal brain proteins could be an important factor…