The role of microbiota in autism spectrum disorder: A bibliometric analysis based on original articles

Abstract

BackgroundGastrointestinal (GI) symptoms can be observed in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) children. It is suggested that the gut microbiota and its metabolites are associated, not only with GI symptoms, but also with behaviors of ASD. The aim of this study was to explore the development context, research hotspots and frontiers of gut microbiota and ASD from January 1, 1980 to April 1, 2022 by bibliometric analysis.Materials and methodsPublications of ASD and gut microbiota research from 1 January 1980 to 1 April 2022 were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). Publications and citations trends were analyzed by Excel 2010. CiteSpace was used to analyze countries/regions, authors, institutes, references, and keywords and to visualize the knowledge map.ResultsA total of 1027 studies were retrieved, and 266 original articles were included after screening. The most published countries and institutes were the United States and King Saud University. Afaf El-Aansary published the most articles, while Finegold SM had the highest co-citations. Hotspots and emerging trends in this area may be indicated by co-cited references and keywords and their clusters, including “gut-brain axis,” “behavior,” “chain fatty acid,” “brain,” “feces,” “propionic acid,” “clostridium perfringens,” and “species clostridium innocuum.”ConclusionThe United States dominants the research in this field, which focuses on the alterations of gut microbiota composition and its metabolites, among which the roles of the genus Clostridium and metabolites of short-chain fatty acids, especially propionic acid, are priorities. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is a promising complementary therapy. In general, research in this area is sparse, but it still has great research prospects.

Reply to Ayoub-Charette et al. Lack of Biological Plausibility and Major Methodological Issues Cast Doubt on the Association between Aspartame and Autism. Comment on “Fowler et al. Daily Early-Life Exposures to Diet Soda and Aspartame Are Associated with Autism in Males: A Case-Control Study. Nutrients 2023, 15, 3772”

“…Some patterns found in the gut microbiota and metabolites in aspartame- and NNS-exposed animals are similar to those observed in individuals with ASD. As noted earlier, an increased abundance of Clostridium species, for example [ 43 , 44 ], and a lower percentage of Akkermansia [ 29 ] have been found in individuals with ASD, as well as among aspartame- and NNS-exposed animals. Because our primary, dichotomized exposure variable was daily early-life exposure to ≥1 diet soda/day, and aspartame, Ace K, and sucralose are the three leading NNS used in diet sodas [ 45 ], it should be noted that sucralose [ 11 , 46 ] and Ace K [ 47 ] have both also been found in multiple studies to have adverse impacts on the gut microbiota [ 11 , 46 , 47 , 48 ].…”

Bibliometric Analysis of Global Trends in Research on Seasonal Variations in Gut Microbiota from 2012 to 2022

“…Keywords are considered to reflect high-frequency hotspots in specific fields [51]. We conducted a comprehensive analysis of keyword co-occurrence and bursts, and summarized the research hotspots as follows: (1) the diversity of gut microbiota communities in different seasons, such as humans [52] and wild mice [11]; (2) the relationship between diet and gut microbiota in seasonal changes, such as in Mongolians [53] and American Bison [13]; (3) the relationship between gut microbiota and evolutionary adaptation in seasonal changes in giant panda [31,54].…”

Bibliometric and visual analysis of fecal microbiota transplantation research from 2012 to 2021

“…Keywords are considered to reflect high-frequency hot spots in a particular field ( Lin et al., 2022 ). We also conducted a comprehensive analysis of the co-cited references and categories, and summarized the research hot spots as follows: 1) Inflammatory bowel disease and CDI ( Cammarota et al., 2017 ), principally including ulcerative colitis ( Costello et al., 2019 ; Matsuoka, 2021 ), and Crohn’s disease ( Bak et al., 2017 ; Sokol et al., 2020 ), also including constipation ( Ge et al., 2017 ; Zhang et al., 2021 ), and diarrhea ( Dai et al., 2019 ); 2) Complementary and alternative treatment of several metabolic diseases, such as obesity ( Allegretti et al., 2020 ; Yu et al., 2020 ), type 2 diabetes ( Wang et al., 2019a ), metabolic syndrome ( Mocanu et al., 2021 ); 3) Adjuvant tumor immunotherapy, mainly to reduce drug toxicity and modulate the immune response ( Chang et al., 2020 ; Baruch et al., 2021 ); 4) Developmental disorders and psychological diseases, mainly related to the treatment of children’s autism ( Kang et al., 2019 ) and the relief of symptoms of depression and anxiety ( Kilinçarslan and Evrensel, 2020 ; Rao et al., 2021 ); 5) Transplantation mode and action mechanisms, such as in vitro sorting of transplanted microorganisms ( Zhang et al., 2020 ), and short-chain fatty acid and bile acid metabolism ( Seekatz et al., 2018 ); 6) Potential indications and risk assessment ( Lagier and Raoult, 2016 ; Gupta et al., 2021 ), and the utilization of standardized fecal sample banks ( Kragsnaes et al., 2020 ).…”