Maternal immune activation upregulates the AU020206-IRFs-STAT1 axis in modulating cytokine production in the brain

Maternal immune activation (MIA) is reported to increase the risk of psychiatric disorders in the offspring. However, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Here, we constructed an MIA mouse model by intraperitoneal injection of LPS into pregnant mice and evaluated the behaviors and gene expression profiles in the brains of the female and male offspring, respectively. We found that the MIA female offspring exhibited increased anxiety and a large number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the brain, which were enriched with disease genes of psychiatric disorders and immune functions. In contrast, the MIA male offspring exhibited no significant abnormal behaviors and only a small number of DEGs, which were not enriched with disease genes and immune functions. Therefore, we further pursued the downstream study on the molecular mechanism underlying the increased anxiety in the female offspring. We identified the lncRNA AU020206-IRFs-STAT1-cytokine axis by integrating lncRNA-protein interaction data and TF-promoter interaction data and verified the axis in vitro and in vivo. The female mice with overexpression of AU020206 in the prefrontal cortex exhibited anxiety behaviors. This study illustrates that MIA upregulates the AU020206-IRFs-STAT1 axis in controlling the brain immunity linked to abnormal behaviors, providing a basis for understanding the role of MIA in psychiatric disorders.