A new study in mice has found that contracting a viral infection during pregnancy may lead to a child being diagnosed with autism.
Eileen Sánchez Martin, a postdoctoral fellow at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, said mouse fetuses can show signs of developmental defects soon after their mothers are exposed to the virus.
“The model we use is very well established for autism spectrum disorders.” Sánchez Martín explained:. “The difference in my study is that rather than analyzing the behavior of the offspring as adults, I am checking what happens to the fetuses 24 hours after exposure to maternal inflammation.”
Autism – estimated to affect 1 in 36 children in the US — A developmental disorder that affects the way people learn, behave, communicate, and interact with others. There is no single cause of autism, but genetic and environmental factors are thought to play a role.
Scientists have been studying for a long time Maternal immune activationthe idea is that inflammation from infections during pregnancy can affect the developing brain of the fetus and increase the risk of autism.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory says Sanchez-Martin's study is the first to look at the effects of prenatal inflammation on the fetus in an autism model.
Sanchez Martin reports that in her experiments, all female mouse embryos appeared to be protected from developmental defects, but up to a third of male mouse embryos were strongly affected. .
Boys are almost four times more likely to be diagnosed with autism than girls; According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Sánchez Martín's research this week Neuroscience Society Conference in Chicago. She hopes her research will eventually help identify early warning signs of autism, even before birth.
Her study comes after researchers at the University of Michigan and the CDC reported that children born with congenital cytomegalovirus, a common viral infection, are nearly 2.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with autism. It was announced after.
The theory is that the virus can cause immune activation in the mother. Researchers advocate routine newborn screening for cytomegalovirus, which is often asymptomatic during pregnancy and at birth.
