As the incidence of autism rises annually,its unknown pathogenesis makes it challenging to treat the varied repetitive and stereotyped behaviors that characterize its core symptoms.The striatum is an important brain region for the control of locomotor behaviors,featuring a unique mosaic structure,complex neural origin,and finely regulated developmental process that is highly susceptible to genetic and environmental influences.Both clinical and basic studies have indicated that abnormal development of the striatal nuclei may contribute to the pathogenesis of these repetitive stereotyped behaviors in autism.Clinical imaging data have primarily identified gross anatomical variations in the stratum(e.g.,its general outline),but lack the resolution necessary to detect the cellular and subcellular alterations within the region.By introducing the abnormalities in the spatiotemporal development of the striatum and their links to the characteristic behaviors of autism,this review aims to advance our understanding of the role of the striatum in autism pathogenesis and to inform future animal studies and clinical research.

Autism spectrum disorder(ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder, and social impairment was one of the core symptoms of ASD, which can seriously affects the social life of patients.The pathogenesis of social impairment in ASD is unclear and it may involves many brain abnormalities.The related theories and hypotheses are numerous and there is no unified conclusion. Studies have shown that the cerebellum has extensive connections with brain networks and is involved in the regulation of social cognition, but its role in ASD has not been fully emphasized.The structural and functional abnormalities of the cerebellar-cortex (CC) loop in ASD patients can lead to language communication disorders, empathy disorders, difficulties in interpreting social cues, abnormal social reward processing and emotional regulation disorders, which are closely related to ASD social impairment. Noninvasive brain stimulation of the superficial cerebellum can improve the abnormal CC circuit in ASD patients, and the cerebellum can be considered as a target for the treatment of social disorders in ASD in the future.Based on the clinical and basic researches on social impairment in ASD in recent years, this article reviews the relevant manifestations of disorders which cerebellar and CC circuit involved, aiming to promote the development of related research in the future.

Autism spectrum disorder(ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder, and social impairment was one of the core symptoms of ASD, which can seriously affects the social life of patients.The pathogenesis of social impairment in ASD is unclear and it may involves many brain abnormalities.The related theories and hypotheses are numerous and there is no unified conclusion. Studies have shown that the cerebellum has extensive connections with brain networks and is involved in the regulation of social cognition, but its role in ASD has not been fully emphasized.The structural and functional abnormalities of the cerebellar-cortex (CC) loop in ASD patients can lead to language communication disorders, empathy disorders, difficulties in interpreting social cues, abnormal social reward processing and emotional regulation disorders, which are closely related to ASD social impairment. Noninvasive brain stimulation of the superficial cerebellum can improve the abnormal CC circuit in ASD patients, and the cerebellum can be considered as a target for the treatment of social disorders in ASD in the future.Based on the clinical and basic researches on social impairment in ASD in recent years, this article reviews the relevant manifestations of disorders which cerebellar and CC circuit involved, aiming to promote the development of related research in the future.

As the incidence of autism rises annually,its unknown pathogenesis makes it challenging to treat the varied repetitive and stereotyped behaviors that characterize its core symptoms.The striatum is an important brain region for the control of locomotor behaviors,featuring a unique mosaic structure,complex neural origin,and finely regulated developmental process that is highly susceptible to genetic and environmental influences.Both clinical and basic studies have indicated that abnormal development of the striatal nuclei may contribute to the pathogenesis of these repetitive stereotyped behaviors in autism.Clinical imaging data have primarily identified gross anatomical variations in the stratum(e.g.,its general outline),but lack the resolution necessary to detect the cellular and subcellular alterations within the region.By introducing the abnormalities in the spatiotemporal development of the striatum and their links to the characteristic behaviors of autism,this review aims to advance our understanding of the role of the striatum in autism pathogenesis and to inform future animal studies and clinical research.

AIM: To investigate the preoperative ocular symptoms and the characteristics of asymptomatic ocular surface abnormalities in hospitalized patients with primary pterygium.METHODS: Cross-sectional study. Hospitalized patients diagnosed with primary pterygium and scheduled to receive pterygium excision surgery at the Xiamen Eye Center of Xiamen University from August 2022 to October 2022 were enrolled. Ocular surface disease index questionnaire(OSDI), six examinations including non-invasive tear film break-up time, Schirmer I test, tear meniscus height, lid margin abnormality, meibomian gland dropout and tear film lipid layer thickness, and anterior segment optical coherence tomography(AS-OCT)were performed and statistically analyzed.RESULTS: A total of 178 cases(178 eyes), with a mean age of 54.39±10.75 years old, were recruited, including 75 males(42.1%)and 103 females(57.9%). The average values of ocular surface parameters in these patients included OSDI: 11.47±9.69, tear film break-up time: 7.10±3.86 s; tear meniscus height: 0.16±0.07 mm, Schirmer I test values: 14.39±7.29 mm/5 min, and pterygium thickness: 504.74±175.87 μm. Totally 161 eyes(90.4%)presented with abnormal lid margin, 44 eyes(24.7%)presented with meibomian gland dropout score ≥4, 52 eyes(29.2%)presented with low lipid layer thickness. In the 6 objective examinations, abnormalities in at least 4 of these tests were found in 85.4% of eyes. Pterygium morphology was classified into four grades: 10 eyes(5.6%)of grade Ⅰ, 93 eyes(52.2%)of grade Ⅱ, 60 eyes(33.7%)of grade Ⅲ, and 15 eyes(8.4%)of grade Ⅳ. In patients with a higher grade of pterygium, the tear film break-up time was lower, and the proportion of abnormal lid margin was also significantly higher(P<0.05). The patients were further divided into two subgroups, including 121 eyes(68.0%)with normal OSDI <13 in the normal group and 57 eyes(32.0%)with OSDI ≥13 in the abnormal group. No significant difference was found in the proportion of meibomian gland dysfunction between the two groups of patients(71.9% vs. 71.9%, P=0.872). In addition, there were differences in the number of abnormal objective examinations(4.11±0.85 vs. 4.91±0.99, P<0.001).CONCLUSIONS: Asymptomatic ocular surface abnormalities were present preoperatively in patients hospitalized for primary pterygium. A comparable high incidence of structural or functional meibomian gland dysfunction existed in pterygium patients with or without apparent ocular discomfort. More attention should be paid to the ocular surface abnormalities in those asymptomatic patients before primary pterygium surgery.

Objective To analyze the current state,research hotspots,and development trends of electroencephalography(EEG)applied in the field of autism spectrum disorder(ASD). Methods Relevant literature from the Web of Science core collection database from January,2014 to January,2024 were retrieved and analyzed using CiteSpace 6.2.R4. Results A total of 1 509 articles were included,with an increasing trend in publication volume over the years.The United States ranked highest in both publication volume and node centrality.The primary journals in this field were concentrated in clinical medicine,immunology and psychology.Keyword co-occurrence and clustering indicated that research primarily focused on the correlation between core symptoms of ASD and EEG indicators,differential diagnosis of ASD and its comorbidities,brain functional connectivity,and assessment of rehabilitation efficacy.Keywords bursted in the past three years mainly included artificial intelligence and machine learning. Conclusion The researches in EEG technology in the field of ASD is generally increasing.Future researches may focus on exploring the brain network mechanisms of ASD using EEG combined with multimodal neuroimaging,and machine learning technologies.

Restricted repetitive behaviors (RRBs) are the most characteristic behaviors of autism spectrum disorder. The clinical diagnosis and treatment of RRBs are extremely difficult resulting from its complex and variable etiology, highly heterogeneous clinical manifestations influenced by multiple factors (sleep quality, gastrointestinal health, age and gender), lack of precise diagnostic criteria and low effectiveness of current clinical interventions. This article mainly reviews the recent related studies on RRBs and discusses the challenges and progress in clinical diagnosis and treatment of RRBs so as to provide new ideas for future clinical diagnosis and treatment.

Polyphyllin Ⅰ(PPⅠ)and polyphyllin Ⅱ(PⅡ)are the main active substances in the Paris polyphylla.However,liver toxicity of these compounds has impeded their clinical application and the potential hepatotoxicity mechanisms remain to be elucidated.In this work,we found that PPⅠ and PⅡ exposure could induce significant hepatotoxicity in human liver cell line L-02 and zebrafish in a dose-dependent manner.The results of the proteomic analysis in L-02 cells and transcriptome in zebrafish indicated that the hepa-totoxicity of PPⅡ and PⅡwas associated with the cholesterol biosynthetic pathway disorders,which were alleviated by the cholesterol biosynthesis inhibitor lovastatin.Additionally,3-hydroxy-3-methy-lglutaryl CoA reductase(HMGCR)and squalene epoxidase(SQLE),the two rate-limiting enzymes in the choles-terol synthesis,selected as the potential targets,were confirmed by the molecular docking,the over-expression,and knockdown of HMGCR or SQLE with siRNA.Finally,the pull-down and surface plasmon resonance technology revealed that PPⅠ could directly bind with SQLE but not with HMGCR.Collectively,these data demonstrated that PPⅠ-induced hepatotoxicity resulted from the direct binding with SQLE protein and impaired the sterol-regulatory element binding protein 2/HMGCR/SQLE/lanosterol synthase pathways,thus disturbing the cholesterol biosynthesis pathway.The findings of this research can contribute to a better understanding of the key role of SQLE as a potential target in drug-induced hepatotoxicity and provide a therapeutic strategy for the prevention of drug toxic effects with similar structures in the future.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a multifactorial disease, with social difficulties and repetitive behaviors as its core symptoms. With the improvement of diagnostic methods, the detection rate of ASD is increasing year by year.Cognitive flexibility impairment is very obvious in most autistic patients.More and more studies have shown that cognitive flexibility impairment is related to the occurrence and development of core symptoms. However, the mechanism of cognitive flexibility impairment in autism remains unclear. The frontal lobe plays an important role in advanced cognition, and its complete development is related to cognitive function. Recent studies have shown that frontal lobe dysfunction is closely related to cognitive flexibility deficits in autistic patients, and the abnormal changes in the frontal lobe, the associated default mode network dysfunction and frontal striatal circuit defects may be the important mechanisms of cognitive flexibility impairment. Based on the recent clinical and basic studies on cognitive flexibility in autism, this article reviews the mechanisms of frontal lobe and related circuits involved in the impairment of cognitive flexibility in autism.

Objective:To investigate the impact of recombinant human epidermal growth factor (rh-EGF) on the epithelial recovery and the tear film stability after trans-epithelial corneal collagen crosslinking in patients with progressive keratoconus.Methods:A randomized controlled clinical trail was designed.Consecutive 66 patients (37 males and 29 females) with an average age of (21.27±3.80) years old diagnosed with primary progressive keratoconus and hospitalized in Xiamen Eye Center Affiliated to Xiamen University from October, 2016 to January, 2017 were enrolled and treated with unilateral enhanced transepithelial corneal crosslinking surgery by iontophoresis, and the patients were randomly divided into control group and experimental group according to random number table method, with 33 patients 33 eyes in each group.The eyes in the control group were treated with carboxy-methylcellulose sodium lubricant eye drops and the eyes in the experimental group were treated with rh-EGF eye drops.The ocular surface disease index (OSDI) questionare, slit lamp examination, Schirmer Ⅰ test, corneal fluorescein sodium staining scoring, non-contact tonometry, uncorrected visual acuity, best corrected visual acuity, bulbar conjunctival congestion scoring, lacrimal sevretion test, non-invasive break-up time of tear film (NIBUT), as well as tear meniscus height analysis were performed before surgery, and on day 1, day 3, day 5, day 7, day 14 and day 28 after surgery.This study followed the Declaration of Helsinki.The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of Xiamen Eye Center Affiliated to Xiamen University (No.2016-ME-003).Results:On day 7 after surgery, the OSDI values were increased in both groups than the preoperative value, while the value in the experimental group was significantly lower than that in the control group ( P<0.05). There were statistically significant differences in the overall corneal epithelial staining score values between the two groups at different time points ( Fgroup=16.701, P<0.01; Ftime=454.418, P<0.01). The corneal epithelial staining score in the experimental group on day 3 and day 5 after surgery were significantly lower than those in the control group (1.79±0.65 vs. 2.70±0.68; 0.91±0.46 vs. 1.55±0.51) (both at P<0.01). The conjunctival congestion score in the experimental group was significantly lower than that of the control group on day 3 and day 5 after surgery (both at P<0.05). There were statistically significant differences in the overall NIBUT values between the two groups at different time points ( Fgroup=13.084, P<0.01; Ftime=34.383, P<0.01). The NIBUT values were significantly decreased rapidly on day 7, day 14 and day 28 after surgery in both groups (all at P<0.01), but gradually recovered.The NIBUT of the experimental group on day 7 and day 14 after surgery were significantly higher than those of the control group ([8.18±2.26]seconds vs. [5.93±2.33]seconds; [9.49±1.95]seconds vs. [7.52±2.27]seconds) (both at P<0.01). No statistical differences were found in the tonometry value, visual acuity, value of Schirmer I test as well as tear meniscus height at any time point before or after surgery between the two groups (all at P>0.05). Conclusions:Recombinant human epidermal growth factor has positive effects in the patients received enhanced transepithelial corneal crosslinking surgery, presenting with promotion of epithelial healing, relief of post-operative discomfort, and the recovery of tear film stability.