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Review
. 2017 Sep 4;14(1):179.
doi: 10.1186/s12974-017-0938-y.

Bridging Autism Spectrum Disorders and Schizophrenia through inflammation and biomarkers - pre-clinical and clinical investigations

Joana Prata  1   2 , Susana G Santos  3   4 , Maria Inês Almeida  2   5 , Rui Coelho  1   2 , Mário A Barbosa  2   5   6
Affiliations
Review

Bridging Autism Spectrum Disorders and Schizophrenia through inflammation and biomarkers - pre-clinical and clinical investigations

Joana Prata et al. J Neuroinflammation. .

Abstract

In recent years, evidence supporting a link between inflammation and neuropsychiatric disorders has been mounting. Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and schizophrenia share some clinical similarities which we hypothesize might reflect the same biological basis, namely, in terms of inflammation. However, the diagnosis of ASD and schizophrenia relies solely on clinical symptoms, and to date, there is no clinically useful biomarker to diagnose or monitor the course of such illnesses.The focus of this review is the central role that inflammation plays in ASD and schizophrenia. It spans from pre-clinical animal models to clinical research and excludes in vitro studies. Four major areas are covered: (1) microglia, the inflammatory brain resident myeloid cells, (2) biomarkers, including circulating cytokines, oxidative stress markers, and microRNA players, known to influence cellular processes at brain and immune levels, (3) effect of anti-psychotics on biomarkers and other predictors of response, and (4) impact of gender on response to immune activation, biomarkers, and response to anti-psychotic treatments.

Keywords: Animal model; Anti-psychotics; Autism spectrum disorders; Biomarker; Clinical research; Immune cells; Inflammation; Microglia; Schizophrenia; microRNA.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Clinical similarities between schizophrenia and ASD. The major symptom areas for the two conditions and their common functional outcome
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
An integrative model of autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia. In this hypothetical model of the interactions between ASD and schizophrenia, the center circles with the same color and their intersections illustrate the similarities between ASD and schizophrenia, in terms of clinical symptom areas, while the underlying biological processes are represented in the outer circle
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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