brain sciences Article Transcriptomic Analysis Reveals Abnormal Expression of Prion Disease Gene Pathway in Brains from Patients with Autism Spectrum Disorders Salvo Danilo Lombardo 1 , Giuseppe Battaglia 2,3, Maria Cristina Petralia 4, Katia Mangano 1 , Maria Sofia Basile 1, Valeria Bruno 2,3, Paolo Fagone 1,* , Rita Bella 5, Ferdinando Nicoletti 1 and Eugenio Cavalli 1 1 Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy;
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[email protected] Received: 26 February 2020; Accepted: 26 March 2020; Published: 29 March 2020 Abstract: The role of infections in the pathogenesis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is still controversial. In this study, we aimed to evaluate markers of infections and immune activation in ASD by performing a meta-analysis of publicly available whole-genome transcriptomic datasets of brain samples from autistic patients and otherwise normal people. Among the differentially expressed genes, no significant enrichment was observed for infectious diseases previously associated with ASD, including herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1), cytomegalovirus and Epstein–Barr virus in brain samples, nor was it found in peripheral blood from ASD patients.