Swimming exercise is a promising early intervention for autism‐like behavior in Shank3 deletion rats

Introduction SHANK3 is an important excitatory postsynaptic scaffold protein, and its mutations lead to genetic cause of neurodevelopmental diseases including autism spectrum disorders (ASD), Philan McDermid syndrome (PMS), and intellectual disability (ID). Early prevention and treatment are important for Shank3 gene mutation disease. Swimming has been proven to have a positive effect on neurodegenerative diseases. Methods Shank3 gene exon 11–21 knockout rats were intervened by a 40 min/day, 5 day/week for 8‐week protocol. After the intervention, the rats were tested to behavioral measures such as learning and memory, and the volume and H‐spectrum of the brain were measured using MRI; hippocampal dendritic spines were measured using Golgi staining and laser confocal. Results The results showed that Shank3‐deficient rats had significant deficits in social memory, object recognition, and water maze learning decreased hippocampal volume and number of neurons, and lower levels of related scaffold proteins and receptor proteins were found in Shank3‐deficient rats. Conclusion It is suggested that early swimming exercise has a positive effect on Shank3 gene‐deficient rats, which provides a new therapeutic strategy for the prevention and recovery of neurodevelopmental disorders. Eight weeks of swimming training make Shank3 knockout pups improve autistic‐like behaviors such as learning memory in rats, increase hippocampal volume, and increase dendritic spine complexity in hippocampal neurons.