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NEURODEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS

Novel insights into autism from single-cell genomics

Nature Reviews Neurology volume 15, pages 434–435 (2019)Cite this article

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Through the use of single-cell genomics, a team led by Dmitry Velmeshev and Arnold Kriegstein at the University of California, San Francisco has uncovered gene expression changes in specific brain cell types and signalling pathways in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The findings, which were published in Science, could aid the identification of new therapeutic targets for this condition.

“This study was made possible by a very recent technological advance that allows profiling of gene expression in single cells through the sequencing of nuclear RNA,” explains Kriegstein. The researchers applied this single-nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) technique to post-mortem prefrontal cortex (PFC) and anterior cingulate cortex tissue samples from 15 patients with ASD and 16 age-matched controls.

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References

Original article

  • Velmeshev, D. et al. Single-cell genomics identifies cell type-specific molecular changes in autism. Science 364, 685–689 (2019)

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Further reading

  • Jeste, S. S. & Geschwind, D. H. et al. Disentangling the heterogeneity of autism spectrum disorder through genetic findings. Nat. Rev. Neurol. 10, 74–81 (2014)

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  1. Nature Reviews Neurology http://www.nature.com/nrneurol/

    Heather Wood

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  1. Heather Wood
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Correspondence to Heather Wood.

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Wood, H. Novel insights into autism from single-cell genomics. Nat Rev Neurol 15, 434–435 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41582-019-0219-8

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