Behavioral Sciences

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Dear Colleagues,

In the recent years, studies have increasingly indicated that several heterogeneous, age-related diseases show neuro-immune and neuro-inflammatory processes, involving many biological pathways. Strong inflammatory states are often associated with main pathologies involving neurodevelopmental disorders like autistic disorders, Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression. All these conditions are linked to an inflammatory mechanism marking the neural dysfunction.

This Special Issue covers chronic neuroimmune and neuroinflammatory diseases, involving molecular and cellular physiopathological pathways, biomarkers discovery, potential pharmacological treatments and rehabilitation in neurodevelopmental disorders, and the role of cognitive impairment and other comorbidities influencing disease progression in these disorders.

Research papers elucidating all these topics are welcomed, as well as comprehensive, state-of-the-art reviews and case reports on novel treatment options.

Prof. Dr. Dario Siniscalco
Prof. Dr. Maria de los Angeles Robinson Agramonte
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Behavioral Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Neuroinflammation
Neuroimmunomodulation
Neural plasticity
Biomarker discovery
Gene expression
Exosomes and microRNA
Neurodevelopment and early stimulation
Neurodevelopment
Neurorehabilitation

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 1425 KiB

Open AccessArticle

de novo Blood Biomarkers in Autism: Autoantibodies against Neuronal and Glial Proteins

by Mohamed B. Abou-Donia, Hagir B. Suliman, Dario Siniscalco, Nicola Antonucci, Passent ElKafrawy and Mulugu V. Brahmajothi

Behav. Sci. 2019, 9(5), 47; https://doi.org/10.3390/bs9050047 - 29 Apr 2019

Cited by 26 | Viewed by 6313

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are the most common neurodevelopmental disorders with unidentified etiology. The behavioral manifestations of ASD may be a consequence of genetic and/or environmental pathology in neurodevelopmental processes. In this limited study, we assayed autoantibodies to a panel of vital neuronal and glial proteins in the sera of 40 subjects (10 children with ASD and their mothers along with 10 healthy controls, age-matched children and their mothers). Serum samples were screened using Western Blot analysis to measure immunoglobulin (IgG) reactivity against a panel of 9 neuronal proteins commonly associated with neuronal degeneration: neurofilament triplet proteins (NFP), tubulin, microtubule-associated proteins (tau), microtubule-associated protein-2 (MAP-2), myelin basic protein (MBP), myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG), α-synuclein (SNCA) and astrocytes proteins such as glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and S100B protein. Our data show that the levels of circulating IgG class autoantibodies against the nine proteins were significantly elevated in ASD children. Mothers of ASD children exhibited increased levels of autoantibodies against all panel of tested proteins except for S100B and tubulin compared to age-matched healthy control children and their mothers. Control children and their mothers showed low and insignificant levels of autoantibodies to neuronal and glial proteins. These results strongly support the importance of anti-neuronal and glial protein autoantibodies biomarker in screening for ASD children and further confirm the importance of the involvement of the maternal immune system as an index that should be considered in fetal in utero environmental exposures. More studies are needed using larger cohort to verify these results and understand the importance of the presence of such autoantibodies in children with autism and their mothers, both as biomarkers and their role in the mechanism of action of autism and perhaps in its treatment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neuroinflammation, Neuroplasticity and Early Stimulation in Neurodevelopmental Disorders)

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Review

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13 pages, 579 KiB

Open AccessReview

Speech-Stimulating Substances in Autism Spectrum Disorders

by María Andrea Castillo, Kendy Eduardo Urdaneta, Neomar Semprún-Hernández, Anna Lisa Brigida, Nicola Antonucci, Stephen Schultz and Dario Siniscalco

Behav. Sci. 2019, 9(6), 60; https://doi.org/10.3390/bs9060060 - 12 Jun 2019

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 16872

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by the core domains of persistent deficits in social communication and restricted-repetitive patterns of behaviors, interests, or activities. A heterogeneous and complex set of neurodevelopmental conditions are grouped in the spectrum. Pro-inflammatory events and immune system dysfunctions are cellular and molecular events associated with ASD. Several conditions co-occur with ASD: seizures, gastro-intestinal problems, attention deficit, anxiety and depression, and sleep problems. However, language and speech issues are key components of ASD symptoms current therapies find difficult to face. Several speech-stimulating substances have been shown to be effective in increasing speech ability in ASD subjects. The need for large clinical trials to determine safety and efficacy is recommended. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neuroinflammation, Neuroplasticity and Early Stimulation in Neurodevelopmental Disorders)

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