Deciphering pathogenesis of autism spectrum disorder with mice model

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder characterized by communication disorders and behavioral limitations, and its high prevalence has attracted increasing social attention in recent years. However, the pathogenesis of ASD is still not fully understood because of its diversity and the suspected involvement of many causative genes and environmental factors. Therefore, analyses using animal models that can isolate and simplify the causes of ASD are thought to be helpful in understanding the disease. In this article, we will introduce the pathogenic mechanism of ASD revealed by the analysis using a mouse model reproducing the mutation of CHD8, which is a reliable candidate gene for the cause of ASD, and discuss the possibility of therapeutic targets predicted from this analysis.