Neuroinflammatory Gene Expression Alterations in Anterior Cingulate Cortical White and Gray Matter of Males With Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Aubrey N Sciara, Brooke Beasley, Jessica D Crawford and 5 others
PMID 32129578WHAT IT FOUND
No measured brain immune gene levels differed between autism and typically developing control tissue after all tests were checked together.
Small trends appeared before that check, but they were not firm.
Key findings
01After adjustment for multiple comparisons, no measured gene expression differed between autism and control anterior cingulate tissue.
02Before adjustment, lower HLA-DR in gray matter and higher MRC1 in white matter appeared, but neither difference survived adjustment.
03GFAP and MOG, markers of glial activation, were unchanged in both gray and white matter.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The sample was small: 17 donors with autism and 17 control donors, and the authors attribute the lack of adjusted significance to this. The study used postmortem brain tissue from male donors only, not living patients, so it did not measure clinical function, behavior, or therapy response. Some donors had been exposed to medications, which could influence gene expression. The analysis tested many genes, and after adjustment for multiple comparisons no significant difference remained. The study measured gene expression, not protein or cellular-level immune changes, which would give a more definitive result.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, and the National Center for Research Resources at the National Institutes of Health.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that autism brain tissue shows a confirmed neuroinflammatory gene-expression difference. The study was small, used postmortem tissue, and after adjustment for multiple comparisons no gene expression difference remained significant.