Fig. 1. The validity of VPA animal model at a glance. Construct validity constitutes the similarity of the etiological factors underlying the disorder between the animal and the human disease that it models. VPA induces ASD both in human and animals. The etiological mechanism may involve changes in epigenetic marks, expression level of genetic determinants as well as brain lesion. The recapitulated disease endophenotypes or biologic markers are assessed for face validity, which shows consistency with human ASD phenotypes. Finally, predictive validity evaluates the treatment response (and disease mechanisms as well as target predictive capability) of the model either to assess its sameness with the human response or to measure its ability to identify drugs beneficial to human. In VPA animal model, known drugs and many drug candidates has been assessed for the applicability as potential therapeutics. MOA, mechanism of action; POC, proof of concept.
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