Possible Link Between Ancient Virus Genome and Autism.

An international research collaboration has discovered that endogenous retrovirus activation increases a fetus’s susceptibility to autism and that BTBR/R mice display autistic-like behaviors without reduced learning ability, making them a more accurate autism model than the widely-used BTBR/J model. These findings could aid in better autism classification and development of new treatment strategies for neurodevelopmental disorders. The study also suggests that it may be possible to develop new treatments for autism that suppress ERV activation.