The novel role of GADD45A in the etiology of autism: modulating neuronal excitability via TET1/R-loop dependent regulation of KCNQ5

Through multiple autism transcriptome analyses of public data, we discovered that the disruption of Gadd45a may explain the pathogenesis of various types of autism, including the most established valproic acid (VPA) prenatal exposure and MECP2 gene-related autism.

Subsequently, we generated Gadd45a knockout mice and found that these mice exhibit significant deficits in social ability, as well as autistic-like phenotypes such as increased digging behaviors. We demonstrated the preferential expression of Gadd45a in cortical excitatory neurons. Through in vivo electrophysiological recordings, we found that the firing frequency of excitatory neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex of knockout mice is abnormal in both resting and task states, which may explain the autistic-like phenotypes exhibited by these mice.