Postnatal AVP treatments prevent social deficit in adolescence of valproic acid-induced rat autism model

• Published in: Peptides (New York, N.Y. : 1980) N.Y. : 1980), 2021-03, Vol.137, p.170493-170493, Article 170493
• Main Authors: Wu, Jing, Dai, Yu-Chuan, Lan, Xing-Yu, Zhang, Hong-Feng, Bai, Shu-Zhen, Hu, Ying, Han, Song-Ping, Han, Ji-Sheng, Zhang, Rong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Animals; Arginine Vasopressin - genetics; Arginine Vasopressin - pharmacology; Autism spectrum disorder; Autism-like behavior; Autistic Disorder - chemically induced; Autistic Disorder - drug therapy; Autistic Disorder - genetics; Autistic Disorder - physiopathology; AVP therapy; AVP-ir neuron numbers; Behavior, Animal - drug effects; Disease Models, Animal; Female; Humans; Neurophysins - genetics; Paraventricular Hypothalamic Nucleus - drug effects; Paraventricular Hypothalamic Nucleus - pathology; Pregnancy; Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects - drug therapy; Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects - genetics; Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects - pathology; Protein Precursors - genetics; Rats; Social Behavior; Stereotyped Behavior - drug effects; Valproic Acid - toxicity; Vasopressins - genetics
• ISSN: 0196-9781; 1873-5169
• DOI: 10.1016/j.peptides.2021.170493

•Infants exposed to VPA showed obvious impaired communication and repetitive behaviors.•The number of AVP-ir cells reduced in VPA exposed infants’ SON and CFS.•AVP injection can rescue social preference deficits and stereotyped behaviors. Studies have shown that arginine-vasopressin (AVP) is an important neuropeptide regulating social behaviors. The present work aimed to detect changes in the AVP numbers and level in a valproic acid (VPA)-induced rat model of autism and the underlying mechanism of its pathogenesis. Our results indicated that infants exposed to VPA showed obviously impaired communication and repetitive behaviors with reduced number of AVP-ir cells in paraventricular nucleus (PVN) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The postnatal subcutaneous injection of AVP can alleviate social preference deficits and stereotyped behaviors, accompanied with the increase of the AVP concentrations in the CSF. We concluded that AVP system was involved in etiology of VPA-induced autism-like symptoms and postnatal AVP treatment rescued the behavioral deficits,which could be a promising treatment for autism.