Tayanloo-Beik Akram, Hamidpour Shayesteh Kokabi, Abedi Mina, Shojaei Hamide, Tavirani Mostafa Rezaei, Namazi Nazli, Larijani Bagher, Arjmand Babak
Cell Therapy and Regenerative Medicine Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Molecular-Cellular Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Proteomics Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Front Psychiatry. 2022 Jul 14;13:911770. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.911770. eCollection 2022.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) refers to a complicated range of childhood neurodevelopmental disorders which can occur genetic or non-genetic factors. Clinically, ASD is associated with problems in relationships, social interactions, and behaviors that pose many challenges for children with ASD and their families. Due to the complexity, heterogeneity, and association of symptoms with some neuropsychiatric disorders such as ADHD, anxiety, and sleep disorders, clinical trials have not yielded reliable results and there still remain challenges in drug discovery and development pipeline for ASD patients. One of the main steps in promoting lead compounds to the suitable drug for commercialization is preclinical animal testing, in which the efficacy and toxicity of candidate drugs are examined . In recent years, zebrafish have been able to attract the attention of many researchers in the field of neurological disorders such as ASD due to their outstanding features. The presence of orthologous genes for ASD modeling, the anatomical similarities of parts of the brain, and similar neurotransmitter systems between zebrafish and humans are some of the main reasons why scientists draw attention to zebrafish as a prominent animal model in preclinical studies to discover highly effective treatment approaches for the ASD through genetic and non-genetic modeling methods.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）是指一系列复杂的儿童神经发育障碍，其可由遗传或非遗传因素引发。临床上，ASD与人际关系、社交互动及行为方面的问题相关，这些问题给患有ASD的儿童及其家庭带来诸多挑战。由于其复杂性、异质性以及症状与某些神经精神疾病（如注意力缺陷多动障碍、焦虑症和睡眠障碍）的关联性，临床试验尚未产生可靠结果，ASD患者的药物研发仍面临挑战。将先导化合物推进为适合商业化的药物的主要步骤之一是临床前动物试验，其中会检测候选药物的疗效和毒性。近年来，斑马鱼因其突出特点，在诸如ASD等神经疾病领域吸引了众多研究人员的关注。存在用于ASD建模的直系同源基因、大脑部分区域的解剖学相似性以及斑马鱼与人类之间相似的神经递质系统，这些是科学家们将斑马鱼作为临床前研究中突出的动物模型予以关注的一些主要原因，以便通过遗传和非遗传建模方法发现针对ASD的高效治疗方法。
