IL-17a promotes sociability in mouse models of neurodevelopmental disorders.

A subset of children with autism spectrum disorder appear to show an improvement in their behavioural symptoms during the course of a fever, a sign of systemic inflammation. Here we elucidate the molecular and neural mechanisms that underlie the beneficial effects of inflammation on social behaviour deficits in mice. We compared an environmental model of neurodevelopmental disorders in which mice were exposed to maternal immune activation (MIA) during embryogenesis with mouse models that are genetically deficient for contactin-associated protein-like 2 (Cntnap2), fragile X mental retardation-1 (Fmr1) or Sh3 and multiple ankyrin repeat domains 3 (Shank3).