Fig. 8

SCGN connects oxytocin and immune response pathways with ASD. a Venn-diagram showing the overlap genes between four different gene sets: DEGs: the differentially expressed genes detected in Scgn^−/− mice RNA-seq. Inflammatory and immune response: the genes enriched in inflammatory and immune response by GSEA. Oxytocin pathway: the genes enriched in oxytocin pathway. ASD-risk genes: the genes related with ASD based on SFARI. b The number and ratio of SCGN DEGs associated with ASD, immune response, and oxytocin signaling pathway. 1495 genes that are differentially expressed in the brains of Scgn^+/+ and Scgn^−/− mice are used for analysis. ASD-risk ASD-risk genes from the SFARI database (March 2022). Inf inflammatory and immune response, Oxy oxytocin pathway. N stands for the number of genes in the KEGG database. c The network representing protein interaction relationship between DEGs in ASD-risk, oxytocin pathway. inflammatory and immune response based on scgn^−/− mice RNA-seq. The interaction confidence was filtered by 0.7. The line transparency indicated the degree of confidence. Purple dots represent ASD-risk genes, blue represent genes associated with the oxytocin pathway, green represent genes associated with inflammatory and immune responses, and the multicolor dots indicate overlap of function and pathway. d SCGN deficiency impairs oxytocin secretion and activates the inflammatory pathway, increasing the risk of ASD. Conversely, SCGN deficiency can be treated by administration of oxytocin and/or anti-inflammatory drugs