The Gut Microbiota - The Environmental Causative Factor and thePotential Therapeutic Targets of Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Copyright: © 2017 Zhou JM. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopment mental disorder affecting approximately 1-2% of the population. ASD patients displayed a wide range of symptoms including social interaction difficulties, decreased communication skills, restricted activities and repetitive behavior [1]. The etiology of ASD involves both genetic and environmental factors according to previous research [2]. Up to now, more than 200 susceptible genes have been identified in ASD patients with different patterns of inheritance [3]. Meanwhile, the gut microbiota emerged as important environmental factors and played a pivotal role in the development and treatment of ASD.