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Genetic analysis of very obese children with autism spectrum disorder

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Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is defined by the triad of deficits in social interactions, deficits in communication, and repetitive behaviors. Common co-morbidities in syndromic forms of ASD include intellectual disability, seizures, and obesity. We asked whether very obese children with ASD had different behavioral, physical and genetic characteristics compared to children with ASD who were not obese. We found that very obese children with ASD had significantly poorer scores on standardized behavioral tests. Very obese boys with ASD had lower full scale IQ and increased impairments with respect to stereotypies, communication and social skills. Very obese girls with ASD had increased impairments with respect to irritability and oppositional defiant behavior. We identified genetic lesions in a subset of the children with ASD and obesity and attempted to identify enriched biological pathways. Our study demonstrates the value of identifying co-morbidities in children with ASD as we move forward towards understanding the biological processes that contribute to this complex disorder and prepare to design customized treatments that target the diverse genetic lesions present in individuals with ASD.

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Abbreviations

ABC:

Aberrant Behavior Checklist

ADI:

Autism Diagnostic Interview

ASD:

Autism spectrum disorder

BMI:

Body mass index,

CBCL 6–18:

Child Behavior Checklist

dnCNVs:

De novo copy number variants

dnLGD:

De novo likely gene disrupting

dnNSC:

De novo non-synonymous coding mutations

ExAC:

Exome Aggregation Consortium

FSIQ:

Full scale IQ

GO:

Gene Ontology

ID:

Intellectual disability

LoF:

Loss of function

PCP:

Planar cell polarity

PWS:

Prader–Willi syndrome

SSC:

Simons Simplex Collection

VABS:

Vineland Adaptive Behavior Rating Scales

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to all of the families at the participating Simons Simplex Collection (SSC) sites, as well as the principal investigators (A. Beaudet, R. Bernier, J. Constantino, E. Cook, E. Fombonne, D. Geschwind, R. Goin-Kochel, E. Hanson, D. Grice, (A) Klin, D. Ledbetter, C. Lord, C. Martin, D. Martin, R. Maxim, J. Miles, O. Ousley, K. Pelphrey, (B) Peterson, J. Piggot, (C) Saulnier, M. State, W. Stone, J. Sutcliffe, C. Walsh, Z. Warren, E. Wijsman). We appreciate obtaining access to phenotypic data on SFARI Base. Approved researchers can obtain the SSC population dataset described in this study by applying at https://base.sfari.org. We are grateful to the Prader–Willi Association of Alberta for their donation in support of our research on autism spectrum disorders.

Funding

This work was supported by a Grant from the Simons Foundation for Autism Research (SFARIPA304216, to RW).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Genetics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    Herman D. Cortes & Rachel Wevrick

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  1. Herman D. Cortes
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  2. Rachel Wevrick
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Contributions

HDC and RW analyzed and interpreted the mutation data and wrote the manuscript. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rachel Wevrick.

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Conflict of interest

H. D. Cortes declares that he has no conflict of interest. R. Wevrick declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

“All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.” Use of SSC data from human subjects was approved by the Health Research Ethics Board-Biomedical Panel of the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta Canada. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

Availability of data and material

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the Simons Foundation but restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study. Data are however available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permission of the Simons Foundation.

Additional information

Communicated by S. Hohmann.

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Cortes, H.D., Wevrick, R. Genetic analysis of very obese children with autism spectrum disorder. Mol Genet Genomics 293, 725–736 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00438-018-1418-5

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