Figure 4. Association of HERV-H and W expression levels with the age of ASD patients and healthy controls.

HERV-H (panel A) and HERV-W (panel B) levels at T₀ are plotted as a function of corresponding age expressed in months. Spearman analysis shows a significant negative correlation between HERV-H expression levels and age only in ASD patients (rho = −0.477; p = 0.010). No significant correlation was found between HERV-W expression and age of both ASD and HC subjects. Relative env gene expression levels were analyzed by Real-time PCR and represented by 2^−ΔΔCt in logarithmic scale.