Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41998191›Full record

ArticleMolecular psychiatry2026

Ceruloplasmin deficiency drives a fusiform-centric lipid-myelin pathology underlying a visual subtype in autism.

Ya-Yin Deng, Shuang-Shuang Zhong, Shi-Huan Wang, Bo-Ya Yin, Xiang Zhou, Feng-Yun Zou, Jia-Yuan Zhao, Yu-Xuan Ni, Xiao-Wen Luo, Li-Shan Shen and 5 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Molecular psychiatry, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Iron dysregulation in the central nervous system: implications for autism spectrum disorder.Biometals : an international journal on the role of metal ions in biology, biochemistry, and medicine · 2026
    Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

15 authors.

Ya-Yin Deng *Department of Radiology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, No. 600 Tianhe Road, Guangzhou, 510630, China.
Shuang-Shuang Zhong *Department of Radiology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, No. 600 Tianhe Road, Guangzhou, 510630, China.
Shi-Huan Wang *Department of Child Development and Behavior Center, the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, No. 600 Tianhe Road, Guangzhou, 510630, China.
Bo-Ya Yin *Department of Radiology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, No. 600 Tianhe Road, Guangzhou, 510630, China.
Xiang ZhouDepartment of Radiology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, No. 600 Tianhe Road, Guangzhou, 510630, China.
Feng-Yun ZouDepartment of Radiology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, No. 600 Tianhe Road, Guangzhou, 510630, China.
Jia-Yuan ZhaoDepartment of Radiology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, No. 600 Tianhe Road, Guangzhou, 510630, China.
Yu-Xuan NiDepartment of Radiology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, No. 600 Tianhe Road, Guangzhou, 510630, China.
Xiao-Wen LuoDepartment of Radiology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, No. 600 Tianhe Road, Guangzhou, 510630, China.
Li-Shan ShenDepartment of Radiology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, No. 600 Tianhe Road, Guangzhou, 510630, China.
Jia-Lu ZhangResearch Department, GE Healthcare, Beijing, People's Republic of China.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4632-4978
Zhi-Ping LinResearch Department, GE Healthcare, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
Wen-Ying ZhouDepartment of Clinical Laboratory, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, No. 600 Tianhe Road, Guangzhou, 510630, China. zhouwy3@mail.sysu.edu.cn.
Hong-Zhu DengDepartment of Child Development and Behavior Center, the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, No. 600 Tianhe Road, Guangzhou, 510630, China. denghzh@mail.sysu.edu.cn.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3919-117X
Ruo-Mi GuoDepartment of Radiology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, No. 600 Tianhe Road, Guangzhou, 510630, China. guoruomi86@mail.sysu.edu.cn.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8207-8746

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Atypical visual processing (AVP) commonly occurs in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and contributes to social impairments, yet its neurobiological basis remains poorly characterized. To investigate potential lipid and myelin mechanisms, this study integrated multimodal MRI, quantifying lipid (proton density fat fraction) and myelin content (synthetic MRI) of 74 nuclei or brain regions, with serum profiling of iron, lead, and ceruloplasmin in 288 children, including 90 ASD with atypical visual processing (ASD‑AVP), 89 ASD without atypical visual processing (ASD‑AVP), and 109 typically developing (TD). The ASD-AVP subgroup exhibited a distinct co-pathology of elevated lipid and myelin centered on the fusiform gyrus (FG), accompanied by a unique positive lipid-myelin correlation (left: r = 0.47, right: r = 0.41). Serum analyses revealed decreased iron and ceruloplasmin and increased lead in ASD-AVP, and mediation analysis indicated that ceruloplasmin deficiency influences FG myelination via lipid pathways (35%-55%). Crucially, BTBR AVP-like mice recapitulated this phenotype with disorganized hypermyelination, whereas nAVP-like mice showed hypomyelination. A combined FG lipid-myelin signature strongly distinguished ASD-AVP from TD (AUC = 0.93) and ASD-nAVP (AUC = 0.87). Preliminary longitudinal follow-up in a subset of patients revealed that improvement in serum ceruloplasmin was associated with a reduction in FG lipid content and stabilization of myelin, paralleling clinical improvement. These findings identify a ceruloplasmin-driven, FG-centric lipid-myelin co-pathology, representing a maladaptive "inflammatory pseudo-compensation" mechanism specific to a visual ASD subtype, and offer novel biomarkers for biological subtyping and targeted interventions.

Indexed as

CeruloplasminAdolescentAnimalsAutism Spectrum DisorderAutistic DisorderBrainChildFemaleHumansIronIron Metabolism DisordersLipidsMagnetic Resonance ImagingMaleMiceMyelin SheathCeruloplasminIronLipids

Identifiers

PMID41998191
PMCPMC13441988

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.