], and it has been demonstrated that alterations in the intestinal virome, especially the DNA virome, may be important factors in diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease, colorectal cancer, diabetes, and Parkinson's disease. Therefore, the study of the gut DNA virome is an important and valuable approach to study the pathogenesis of diseases.
Here we conducted a case–control study to explore the differences in the gut DNA virome compared to non-autistic children, which might play a role in ASD. First, we recruited children with ASD from the same family to participate together with their healthy siblings, taking into account age, mode of birth, history of antibiotic use, and vaccination history to reduce the influence of confounding factors and to improve the accuracy of the test results.