The use of iPSC technology for modeling Autism Spectrum Disorders

Author(s)

Russo, Fabiele Baldino ^[1] ; Brito, Anita ^[1] ; de Freitas, Ariane Miranda ^[1] ; Castanha, Andrelissa ^[1] ; de Freitas, Beatriz C. ^[1] ; Baleeiro Beltrao-Braga, Patricia Cristina ^{[1, 2]}

Affiliation

^[1] Univ Sao Paulo, Inst Biomed Sci, Dept Microbiol, Sao Paulo, SP - Brazil

^[2] Sch Arts Sci & Humanities, Dept Obstet, BR-03828000 Sao Paulo, SP - Brazil

• Document type: Review article
• Source: Neurobiology of Disease; v. 130, OCT 2019.
• Web of Science Citations: 0

Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) are a group of neurodevelopmental disorders that influence social skills, involving communication, interaction, and behavior, usually with repetitive and restrictive manners. Due to the variety of genes involved in ASDs and several possible environmental factors influence, there is still no answer to what really causes syndromic and non-syndromic types of ASDs, usually affecting each individual in a unique way. However, we know that the mechanism underlying ASDs involves brain functioning. The human brain is a complex structure composed of close to 100 billion cells, which is a big challenge to study counting just with post mortem tissue investigation or genetic approaches. Therefore, human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) technology has been used as a tool to produce viable cells for understanding a working brain. Taking advantage of patient-derived stem cells, researchers are now able to generate neurons, glial cells and brain organoids in vitro to model ASDs. In this review we report data from different studies showing how iPSCs have been a critical tool to study the different phenotypes of ASDs. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 11/20683-0 - Generation of induced pluripotent cells of patients with autistic disorder
• Grantee: Fabiele Baldino Russo
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• FAPESP's process: 16/02978-6 - Cell modeling Autism Spectrum Disorder patients using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC)
• Grantee: Fabiele Baldino Russo
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctorate