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  1. Katharine H. Wrighton
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The genetic heterogeneity associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a condition with altered social interactions, has complicated the search for treatments. To circumvent this issue, some recent work on developing therapeutics for ASD has focused on oxytocin and vasopressin, which are neuropeptides that regulate features of mammalian social behaviour. However, whether genetic risk factors associated with ASD modify oxytocin and/or vasopressin signalling was unclear. Hörnberg et al. now show that, in mice, loss of the autism risk gene Nlgn3, which encodes a synaptic adhesion molecule, impairs oxytocin signalling and alters social behaviour.

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Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 19, 670 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41573-020-00147-4

This article originally appeared in Nat. Rev. Neurosci. (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-020-0368-1)

References

  1. Hörnberg, H. et al. Rescue of oxytocin response and social behaviour in a mouse model of autism. Nature 584, 252–256 (2020)

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