Differential effectiveness of dietary zinc supplementation with autism-related behaviours in knockout mice.

The family of SHANK proteins have been shown to be critical in regulating glutamatergic synaptic structure, function and plasticity. variants are also prevalent in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), where glutamatergic synaptopathology has been shown to occur in multiple ASD mouse models. Our previous work has shown that dietary zinc in and ASD mouse models can reverse or prevent ASD behavioural and synaptic deficits. Here, we have examined whether dietary zinc can influence behavioural and synaptic function in mice. Our data show that dietary zinc supplementation can reverse hyperactivity and social preference behaviour in mice, but it does not alter deficits in working memory. Consistent with this, at the synaptic level, deficits in NMDA/AMPA receptor-mediated transmission are also not rescued by dietary zinc. In contrast to other ASD models examined, we observed that SHANK3 protein was highly expressed at the synapses of mice and that dietary zinc returned these to wild-type levels. Overall, our data show that dietary zinc has differential effectiveness in altering ASD behaviours and synaptic function across ASD mouse models even within the family. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Long-term potentiation: 50 years on'.