Fig. 1

miRNA expression profiles in blood from adults with high-functioning ASD and controls. a Flow chart of the study design. b Differential miRNA expression profiles determined using microarray. Red dots indicate miRNAs with p-values < 0.01 and |fold change| > 1.5. c Frequency of miRNA selection was calculated using a greedy algorithm. A total of 2000 selections using random 80% subsets of both ASD and controls were run. The eight most frequently selected miRNAs are shown. d Expression level of miR-6126 by qRT–PCR. U6 snRNA was used as an internal control. Data are presented as the upper and lower quantiles and range (box). *p < 0.01 e Correlation between miR-6126 expression level and SRS-2 total score. Spearman’s correlation coefficients are shown. f Expression level of miR-6126 across human tissues. U6 snRNA was used as an internal control. Relative expression was quantified using the ddCt method. g GO/KEGG pathway, and ASD-related gene enrichment analyses of target genes of miR-6126. Red line indicates p-values < 0.05