Association of clock gene variants with Autism Spectrum Disorder in South Indian population

Abstract

Autism Spectrum disorder is a group of neurodevelop- mental disorders that manifests in the first three years of life. Social impairments, communication difficulties and repetitive/stereotyped behaviour are the common symptoms of the spectrum. One of the major endophe- notype associated with the disease is circadian and sen- sory dysfunction. Circadian dysfunction is mainly observed by difficulties in sleeping. Around 56-83% of patients with ASD suffer from sleep problems. There is an endogenous circadian clock that regulates the sleep and wakefulness, cognitive function, systematic hormo- nal release and body temperature. We hypothesize that the genes functioning to maintain this molecular clock maybeassociated with ASDeitherdirectlyorbyits transcriptional regulation of other genes.