ReviewBiological psychiatry2017
Maternal Immune Activation and Autism Spectrum Disorder: From Rodents to Nonhuman and Human Primates.
Review in Biological psychiatry, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 206 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
206 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 341 citations in OpenAlex.
- Linking Inflammation, Aberrant Glutamate-Dopamine Interaction, and Post-synaptic Changes: Translational Relevance for Schizophrenia and Antipsychotic Treatment: a Systematic Review.Molecular neurobiology · 2022Pooled it
- Mid-gestation cytokine profiles in mothers of children affected by autism spectrum disorder: a case-control study.Scientific reports · 2021Trial
- Associations between chronic placental inflammation, fetal brain development and later autism traits.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Article
- Prenatal COVID-19 Exposure and Neurodevelopmental and Neurological Disorders in Children.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Cord blood cytokine signatures and the path toward preemptive autism interventions.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- Maternal and neonatal cytokine profiles in a twin cohort: evidence from an exploratory pilot study of perinatal immune dysregulation in autism.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- A Developmental Neuroimmune Cascade Model of Autism Spectrum Disorder.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Prenatal maternal immune activation triggers lasting cell-specific transcriptomic dysregulation in the amygdala of primate offspring.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Prenatal Azithromycin Exposure and Risk of Neurodevelopmental Disorders in Children.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Nitric Oxide-S-Nitrosylation and Its Role in Neuroinflammation Associated with Neuropsychiatric Conditions.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Sex specific effects of adoptive Tregs transfer on the brain and periphery in maternal immune activation offspring rescuing immune dysregulation.Journal of neuroinflammation · 2026Article
- Analysis of Gene, Environment, and Sex Interaction in the Development of Autistic-like Phenotype in Mice.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Exploring the roots of schizophrenia: Current research and future directions (Review).Experimental and therapeutic medicine · 2026Review
- The role of the kynurenine pathway in the pathophysiology of autism-like phenotype induced by maternal inflammation in male mice.Neurobiology of disease · 2026Article
- Article
- Prenatal and postnatal effects of gestational immune activation on synaptic and neurodevelopmental pathways via epigenetic mechanisms.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Maternal immune activation during gestation modulates offspring immune profiles in a nonhuman primate model.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2026Article
- Sex specific effects of adoptive Tregs transfer on the brain and periphery in maternal immune activation offspring rescuing immune dysregulation.Research square · 2026Article
- Perinatal hyperandrogenization and immune activation in rodents model subtypes of autism.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
146 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
A subset of women who are exposed to infection during pregnancy have an increased risk of giving birth to a child who will later be diagnosed with a neurodevelopmental or neuropsychiatric disorder. Although epidemiology studies have primarily focused on the association between maternal infection and an increased risk of offspring schizophrenia, mounting evidence indicates that maternal infection may also increase the risk of autism spectrum disorder. A number of factors, including genetic susceptibility, the intensity and timing of the infection, and exposure to additional aversive postnatal events, may influence the extent to which maternal infection alters fetal brain development and which disease phenotype (autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia, other neurodevelopmental disorders) is expressed. Preclinical animal models provide a test bed to systematically evaluate the effects of maternal infection on fetal brain development, determine the relevance to human central nervous system disorders, and to evaluate novel preventive and therapeutic strategies. Maternal immune activation models in mice, rats, and nonhuman primates suggest that the maternal immune response is the critical link between exposure to infection during pregnancy and subsequent changes in brain and behavioral development of offspring. However, differences in the type, severity, and timing of prenatal immune challenge paired with inconsistencies in behavioral phenotyping approaches have hindered the translation of preclinical results to human studies. Here we highlight the promises and limitations of the maternal immune activation model as a preclinical tool to study prenatal risk factors for autism spectrum disorder, and suggest specific changes to improve reproducibility and maximize translational potential.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.