A Personalized Medicine Approach to the Diagnosis and Management of Autism Spectrum Disorder: Beyond Genetic Syndromes

Dear Colleagues,

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) now affects more than 2% of children, and its prevalence continues to grow. Currently, there is no curative treatment and current therapies provide suboptimal habilitation in many individuals that are affected, leading to a new framing of ASD as a lifelong disorder for many rather than simply a disorder isolated to childhood. The significant heterogeneity of ASD has made the development of diagnosis tools and treatments challenging. A majority of research on ASD concentrates on identifying the genetic syndrome, but there is a new understanding that the etiology of ASD is very complex and probably driven by genetic variations and vulnerabilities interacting with environmental exposures and triggers. Our two previous Special Issues have provided insight into applying personalized medicine to improve the diagnosis and detection of pathophysiological processes and predict treatment response in individuals with ASD. See: (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/jpm/special_issues/Personalized_Medicine_Approach_ASD).

Aim and scope: Our goal is to continue to publish high-impact articles describing a personalized medicine approach for the diagnosis, classification, and treatment of ASD. This year, we wish to focus on the emerging understanding of the role of environmental factors, their contribution to genetic variants and vulnerabilities, and their interaction with the environment.

History: ASD is a difficult disorder to diagnose and treat, both because its diagnosis is traditionally not based on objective biomarkers and because there are numerous underlying pathophysiological processes which may be difficult to detect. Treatment response is extremely variable, and biomarkers used to predict response are limited. Thus, a personalized medicine approach could greatly benefit this population. There is emerging evidence that the environment and genetic variants play an important role in the development of ASD.

Cutting-edge research: We encourage any submissions describing genetic, epigenetic, physiologic, metabolic, immunological, microbiome, behavior, educational, and societal factors that are involved in the etiology, diagnosis, management, and treatment of ASD.

What kind of papers we are soliciting: We encourage the submission of manuscripts that describe a personalized medicine approach for the diagnosis, classification, and treatment of ASD, particularly those that describe the influence of environmental factors and/or genetic variants.

Prof. Dr. Richard E. Frye
Dr. Richard G. Boles
Dr. Daniel Rossignol
Dr. Shannon Rose
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. Journal of Personalized Medicine 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 2600 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.