EU-AIMS Longitudinal European Autism Project (LEAP): the autism twin cohort
Open accessAbstract
EU-AIMS is the largest European research program aiming to identify stratification biomarkers and novel interventions for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Within the program, the Longitudinal European Autism Project (LEAP) has recruited and comprehensively phenotyped a rare sample of 76 monozygotic and dizygotic twins, discordant, or concordant for ASD plus 30 typically developing twins. The aim of this letter is to complete previous descriptions of the LEAP case-control sample, clinically characterize, and investigate the suitability of the sample for ASD twin-control analyses purposes and share some 'lessons learnt.' Among the twins, a diagnosis of ASD is associated with increased symptom levels of ADHD, higher rates of intellectual disability, and lower family income. For the future, we conclude that the LEAP twin cohort offers multiple options for analyses of genetic and shared and non-shared environmental factors to generate new hypotheses for the larger cohort of LEAP singletons, but particularly cross-validate and refine evidence from it.
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Several major collaborative efforts in ASD, such as EU-AIMS, specifically aim to understand biomarkers potentially relevant to stratification.
“Several major collaborative efforts in ASD, such as the EU-AIMS (eu-aims.eu) specifically aim to understand biomarkers potentially relevant to stratification [266–268].”
From The contribution of environmental exposure to the etiology of autism spectrum disorder (2019) · cites this paper as [268]
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- Authors
- the EU-AIMS LEAP group, Isaksson, J., Tammimies, K., Neufeld, J., Cauvet, É., Lundin, K., Buitelaar, J. K., Loth, E., Murphy, D. G. M., Spooren, W., & Bölte, S.
- Affiliations
- Uppsala University (SE)
- Region Stockholm (SE)
- Radboud University Nijmegen (NL)
- King's College London (GB)
- F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG (CH)
- Corresponding author
- Bölte, Sven
- ORCID
- Venue
- Molecular Autism
- Published
- 2018-04-13
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 26-26
- ISSN
- 2040-2392 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5899373
- OpenAlex
- W2801888814
- Cited by
- 17
- References
- 27
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 3
- FWCI
- 1.77
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Molecular Autism (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Greenwich Academic Literature Archive (University of Greenwich) (acceptedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- IRIS UNIMORE (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- KTH Publication Database DiVA (KTH Royal Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Utrecht University Repository (Utrecht University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion)
- Apollo (University of Cambridge) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Apollo (cc-by)
- Funders
- FP7 Ideas: European Research Council (FP7/2007-2013)
- H2020 European Research Council (777394-2)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetics and Neurodevelopmental Disorders
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Sexual Differentiation and Disorders
- Keywords
- autism spectrum disorder, twin discordance, monozygotic twins, dizygotic twins, phenotyping, ADHD comorbidity, intellectual disability, household income, genetic factors
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Autistic Disorder, Child, Europe, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Phenotype, Twins, Dizygotic, Twins, Monozygotic, Cohort Studies
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