• Ennio Avolio, Ilaria Olivito, Eleonora Rosina, Lorenzo Romano, Tommaso Angelone, Anna De Bartolo, Manuel Scimeca, Dina Bellizzi, Patrizia D'Aquila, Giuseppe Passarino, Raffaella Alò, Rosa Maria Facciolo, Claudia Bagni, Antonino De Lorenzo, and Marcello Canonaco.
• Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, Section of Clinical Nutrition and Nutrigenomic, University of Roma "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy; Health Center srl, Via Sabotino 56, 87100 Cosenza, Italy; Laboratory of Comparative Neuroanatomy, Department of Biology, Ecology and Earth Science (DiBEST), University of Calabria, Cosenza, Italy.
• Neuroscience. 2022 Aug 21; 498: 174-189.

AbstractAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder displaying the modification of complex human behaviors, characterized by social interaction impairments, stereotypical/repetitive activities and emotional dysregulation. In this study, fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) via gavage from autistic children donors to mice, led to the colonization of ASD-like microbiota and autistic behaviors compared to the offspring of pregnant females exposed to valproic acid (VPA). Such variations seemed to be tightly associated with increased populations of Tenericutes plus a notable reduction (p < 0.001) of Actinobacteria and Candidatus S. in the gastrointestinal region of FMT mice as compared to controls. Indeed altered behaviors of FMT mice was reported when evaluated in the different maze tests (light dark, novel object, three chamber tests, novel cage test). Contextually, FMT accounted for elevated expression levels of the pro-inflammatory factors IL-1β, IL-6, COX-1 and TNF-α in both brain and small intestine. Villous atrophy and inflammatory infiltration (Caspase 3 and Ki67) were increased in the small intestine of FMT and VPA mice compared to controls. Moreover, the observed FMT-dependent alterations were linked to a decrease in the methylation status. Overall, findings of the present study corroborate a key role of gut microbiota in ASD. However, further investigations are required before any possible manipulation of gut bacteria with appropriate diets or probiotics can be conducted in ASD individuals.Copyright © 2022 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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