Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder, we decided to design small molecule drugs to block autoantibodies to alleviate the symptoms of autism. We screened ferrichrome and protoporphyrin IX that could bind to antibodies in intestinal microbiome small molecule metabolism library. Our experimental group designed the engineered bacteria to produce small molecule blockers through synthetic biological pathways. Our modeling group verified the high efficiency of its blocking antibodies through molecular docking. Our HP group provided safety, ethics and social significance support. We hope our research can provide potential therapeutic medicine for autistic children in the future.
There is increasing evidence that brain autoantibodies are closely related to the pathogenesis of ASD. The main brain autoantibodies associated with ASD are anti-GM1, anti-MBP and anti-GAD, and we found the small molecule metabolites ferrichrome and protoporphyrin that can bind to them through homology modeling analysis. Therefore, we designed two kinds of engineered bacteria to express these two small molecule metabolites, which can block the brain autoantibodies from attacking neurons to a certain extent.
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