Gut microbiota and Autism Spectrum Disorder: From pathogenesis to potential therapeutic perspectives

Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder which disrupts communication, social and interactive skills followed by appearance of repetitive behavior. The underlying etiology remains incomprehensible but genetic and environmental factors play a key role. Accumulated evidence shows that alteration in level of gut microbes and their metabolites are not only linked to gastrointestinal problems but also to autism. So far the mix of microbes that is present in the gut affects human health in numerous ways through extensive bacterial-mammalian cometabolism and has a marked influence over health via gut -brain-microbial interactions. Healthy microbiota may even ease the symptoms of autism, as microbial balance influences brain development through the neuroendocrine, neuroimmune, and autonomic nervous systems. In this article, we focused on reviewing the correlation between gut microbiota and their metabolites on symptoms of autism by utilizing prebiotics, probiotics and herbal remedies to target gut microflora hence autism.(c) 2022 Center for Food and Biomolecules, National Taiwan University. Production and hosting by Elsevier Taiwan LLC. All rights reserved. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).