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Are animal models for ASD a monkey wrench or useful tool?

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A new animal model of autism appeared this week:  the monkey.  This adds to the ever growing list of different model systems from autism, from fruit flies to mice and rats now up to monkeys.  Are these animal models useful and for what, and why isn’t there just ONE model of autism rather than the dozen that exist?  This week’s podcast discusses research from scientists at the UC Davis MIND Institute and what they are doing to improve these models of ASD.

https://www.spectrumnews.org/features/multimedia/webinars/webinar-jill-silverman-makes-case-rat-models-autism/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5810939/pdf/nihms906435.pdf

http://news.mit.edu/2019/gene-editing-autism-model-0612

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An ode to rats as animal models for autism

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This week, the lab of Dr. Jill Silverman at UC Davis published a study that showed the most similar types of social communication deficits in an animal model.  Her group, led by Elizabeth Berg, used a rat model, rather than a mouse, because rats exhibit both receptive and expressive communication.  Through a collaboration within the UC Davis MIND Institute and Mount Sinai School of Medicine, she tested an animal model of autism that shows a lack of expression of SHANK3.  SHANK3 mutations are seen in those with Phelan-McDermid Syndrome as well as in 1% of people with autism.  This new study opens up new ways to understand autism symptoms in an animal model, and moves autism research using animals forward significantly.   The references mentioned in the podcast are:

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29377611

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29126394

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27189882