Journal of Clinical Medicine Review Maternal-Autoantibody-Related (MAR) Autism: Identifying Neuronal Antigens and Approaching Prospects for Intervention Katya Marks 1 , Ester Coutinho 2,3 and Angela Vincent 4,* 1 Medical Sciences Division, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK;
[email protected] 2 Department of Basic and Clinical Neuroscience, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, Maurice Wohl Clinical Neuroscience Institute, King’s College London, London SE5 9RT, UK;
[email protected] 3 Medical Research Council Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, King’s College London, London SE1 1UL, UK 4 Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences and Weatherall Institute for Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 9DS, UK * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +44-781-722-4849 or +44-186-555-9636 Received: 26 June 2020; Accepted: 3 August 2020; Published: 7 August 2020 Abstract: Recent studies indicate the existence of a maternal-autoantibody-related subtype of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). To date, a large number of studies have focused on describing patterns of brain-reactive serum antibodies in maternal-autoantibody-related (MAR) autism and some have described attempts to define the antigenic targets. This article describes evidence on MAR autism and the various autoantibodies that have been implicated. Among other possibilities, antibodies to neuronal surface protein Contactin Associated Protein 2 (CASPR2) have been found more frequently in mothers of children with neurodevelopmental disorders or autism, and two independent experimental studies have shown pathogenicity in mice. The N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) is another possible target for maternal antibodies as demonstrated in mice.