IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v10y2013i9p4261-4273d28709.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Epigenetic Findings in Autism: New Perspectives for Therapy

Author

Listed:
  • Dario Siniscalco

    (Department of Experimental Medicine, Second University of Naples; via S. Maria di Costantinopoli, Napoli 16-80138, Italy
    Centre for Autism—La Forza del Silenzio, Caserta 81036, Italy
    Cancellautismo—Non-Profit Association for Autism Care, Florence 50132, Italy)

  • Alessandra Cirillo

    (Institute of Protein Biochemistry, National Research Council of Italy,Naples 80128, Italy)

  • James Jeffrey Bradstreet

    (International Child Development Resource Center, Chateau Elan 30517, USA)

  • Nicola Antonucci

    (Biomedical Centre for Autism Research and Treatment, Bari 70126, Italy)

Abstract

Autism and autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are complex neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by dysfunctions in social interactions, communications, restricted interests, and repetitive stereotypic behaviors. Despite extensive genetic and biological research, significant controversy surrounds our understanding of the specific mechanisms of their pathogenesis. However, accumulating evidence points to the involvement of epigenetic modifications as foundational in creating ASD pathophysiology. Epigenetic modifications or the alteration of DNA transcription via variations in DNA methylation and histone modifications but without alterations in the DNA sequence, affect gene regulation. These alterations in gene expression, obtained through DNA methylation and/or histone modifications, result from transcriptional regulatory influences of environmental factors, such as nutritional deficiencies, various toxicants, immunological effects, and pharmaceuticals. As such these effects are epigenetic regulators which determine the final biochemistry and physiology of the individual. In contrast to psychopharmacological interventions, bettering our understanding of how these gene-environmental interactions create autistic symptoms should facilitate the development of therapeutic targeting of gene expression for ASD biomedical care.

Suggested Citation

  • Dario Siniscalco & Alessandra Cirillo & James Jeffrey Bradstreet & Nicola Antonucci, 2013. "Epigenetic Findings in Autism: New Perspectives for Therapy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-13, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:10:y:2013:i:9:p:4261-4273:d:28709
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/10/9/4261/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/10/9/4261/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shelley L. Berger, 2007. "The complex language of chromatin regulation during transcription," Nature, Nature, vol. 447(7143), pages 407-412, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nicola Alessio & Anna Lisa Brigida & Gianfranco Peluso & Nicola Antonucci & Umberto Galderisi & Dario Siniscalco, 2020. "Stem Cell-Derived Exosomes in Autism Spectrum Disorder," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-10, February.
    2. Mohammad H. Rahbar & Hanes M. Swingle & MacKinsey A. Christian & Manouchehr Hessabi & MinJae Lee & Meagan R. Pitcher & Sean Campbell & Amy Mitchell & Ryan Krone & Katherine A. Loveland & Donald G. Pat, 2017. "Environmental Exposure to Dioxins, Dibenzofurans, Bisphenol A, and Phthalates in Children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder Living near the Gulf of Mexico," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-17, November.
    3. Mohammad H. Rahbar & Maureen Samms-Vaughan & Jianzhong Ma & Jan Bressler & Katherine A. Loveland & Manouchehr Ardjomand-Hessabi & Aisha S. Dickerson & Megan L. Grove & Sydonnie Shakespeare-Pellington , 2014. "Role of Metabolic Genes in Blood Arsenic Concentrations of Jamaican Children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-22, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tsionas, Efthymios G. & Assaf, A. George & Matousek, Roman, 2015. "Dynamic technical and allocative efficiencies in European banking," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 130-139.
    2. Yunfan Li & Dan Zhang & Mouxing Yang & Dezhong Peng & Jun Yu & Yu Liu & Jiancheng Lv & Lu Chen & Xi Peng, 2023. "scBridge embraces cell heterogeneity in single-cell RNA-seq and ATAC-seq data integration," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    3. Yu Tao & Yuan Zhang & Xiaohong Jin & Nan Hua & Hong Liu & Renfei Qi & Zitong Huang & Yufang Sun & Dongsheng Jiang & Terrance P. Snutch & Xinghong Jiang & Jin Tao, 2023. "Epigenetic regulation of beta-endorphin synthesis in hypothalamic arcuate nucleus neurons modulates neuropathic pain in a rodent pain model," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-18, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:10:y:2013:i:9:p:4261-4273:d:28709. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.