Higher Autism Polygenic Risk Scores Linked to Differential Methylation Among Newborns

By studying blood samples taken from infants, researchers have found that higher numbers of alleles associated with risk for autism spectrum disorder are also associated with differential methylation at certain spots in the genome.

Autism spectrum disorder is highly heritable, though environmental factors still influence its risk, possibly through epigenetic variation.

Using blood spot samples collected shortly after birth, a University of Exeter Medical School-led team examined methylomic variation in 1,263 infants, about half of whom were later diagnosed with ASD. While they found no differences in overall methylation between the later affected and unaffected infants, the researchers did find a link between increased polygenic burden for autism and differences in methylation at certain loci. As they reported this week in Genome Medicine, these loci are close to a signal previously uncovered through a genome-wide association study of autism

“Our study represents the first analysis of epigenetic variation at birth associated with autism and highlights the utility of polygenic risk scores for identifying molecular pathways associated with etiological variation.”

Read more at genomeweb.com!