Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in social communication, social interaction, and repetitive restricted behaviors (RRBs). It is usually detected in early childhood. RRBs are behavioral patterns characterized by repetition, inflexibility, invariance, inappropriateness, and frequent lack of obvious function or specific purpose. To date, the classification of RRBs is contentious. Understanding the potential mechanisms of RRBs in children with ASD, such as neural connectivity disorders and abnormal immune functions, will contribute to finding new therapeutic targets. Although behavioral intervention remains the most effective and safe strategy for RRBs treatment, some promising drugs and new treatment options (e.g., supplementary and cell therapy) have shown positive effects on RRBs in recent studies. In this review, we summarize the latest advances of RRBs from mechanistic to therapeutic approaches and propose potential future directions in research on RRBs.

Sirtuin7 (SIRT7) is known to regulate apoptosis and stress responses. So far, very little is known about the role of SIRT7 in cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury. In this study, we aimed to investigate the potential role of SIRT7 in regulating oxygen-glucose deprivation and reoxygenation (OGD/R)-induced injury in neurons. We found a significant increase of SIRT7 expression in neurons in response to OGD/R treatment. Knockdown of SIRT7 aggravated OGD/R-induced injury. Knockdown of SIRT7 augmented the levels of total and acetylated p53 protein. Moreover, knockdown of SIRT7 markedly increased the transcriptional activity of p53 toward apoptosis and activated the p53-mediated proapoptotic signaling pathway. By contrast, overexpression of SIRT7 showed the opposite effects. Taken together, the results of our study suggest that SIRT7 is involved in protecting neurons against OGD/R-induced injury, possibly through regulation of the p53-mediated proapoptotic signaling pathway, indicating a potential therapeutic target for cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury.

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The ability to perceive biological motion (BM) is crucial for human survival and social interaction. Plentiful studies have found impaired BM perception in autism spectrum disorder characterized by deficits in social interaction. Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often exhibit similar deficits in social interaction, but few studies have investigated BM perception in ADHD. Here, we compared the differences in abilities to process local kinematic and global configurational cues, two fundamental abilities of BM perception, between typically developing (TD) and ADHD children. Then, we further investigated the relationship between BM perception and social interaction skills measured by the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) and examined the contributions of potential factors (e.g., gender, age, attention and intelligence) to BM perception. Results revealed that children with ADHD exhibited atypical BM perception with a clear dissociation between local and global BM information processing. Local BM processing ability was largely related to social interaction skills, whereas global BM processing ability would significantly improve with age. Critically, general BM perception (i.e., both local and global BM cues) was affected by sustained attention ability in ADHD. This relationship was mainly mediated by Reasoning Intelligence. These findings elucidate the atypical biological motion perception in ADHD and the potential factors related to BM perception. Moreover, this study provides new evidence for local BM perception as a hallmark of social cognition, and advances the comprehensive understanding of the distinct roles of local and global processing in BM perception and social cognitive disorders.