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  1. BMC Psychiatry · 2025 · PMID 40696282

    Sex differences in fecal metabolic profiles of major depressive disorder: unveiling sex-specific metabolomic panel.

    Ren S, Qin P, Wang Y, Li Z, Sun Z, Wang G et al.

    BACKGROUND: Major depressive disorder (MDD) disproportionately affects women, who exhibit a higher prevalence and greater symptom severity than men. However, sex-specific pathophysiological mechanisms remain poorly understood. Emerging evidence implicates gut microbiota-derived metabolites in MDD, but many prior studies have failed to consider sex differences, potentially obscuring critical biomarkers. This study aims to address this gap by characterizing sex-specific fecal metabolite profiles in MDD. METHODS: Untargeted metabolomics was used to examine fecal metabolic profiles in 279 participants (117 with MDD and 162 healthy controls). The cohort was stratified by biological sex to identify sex-specific metabolic alterations associated with depressive symptoms through statistical analyses. A machine learning approach incorporating feature selection was employed to identify potential discriminative biomarkers, with a particular focus on female metabolic characteristics. RESULTS: Sex-stratified analysis revealed significant metabolic divergence in female MDD patients compared to healthy controls. Twenty-four differentially abundant metabolites were identified in females, with heptylamine and phenaceturic acid being unique to this group; no significant differences were observed in males. Correlation analyses showed that phenaceturic acid and 1-monoheptadecanoyl glyceride were significantly negatively correlated with depressive symptom severity in females. Besides, a sex-specific diagnostic panel based on five key fecal metabolites demonstrated promising performance in distinguishing female MDD patients from healthy controls. CONCLUSION: By systematically revealing sex-dependent metabolic alterations, this study identified potential biomarkers for sex-specific diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. These findings highlight the importance of integrating sex-specific perspectives in gut-brain axis research to advance precision medicine in MDD, rather than relying solely on generalized approaches. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Human Research and Ethics Committee of Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, China (Approval No. 2017-24), registered on 2018.07.24.

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  2. Front Cell Infect Microbiol · 2021 · PMID 34595128

    Impact of Inosine on Chronic Unpredictable Mild Stress-Induced Depressive and Anxiety-Like Behaviors With the Alteration of Gut Microbiota.

    Liu X, Teng T, Li X, Fan L, Xiang Y, Jiang Y et al.

    Current antidepressants do not confer a clear advantage in children and adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD). Accumulating evidence highlights the potential antidepressant-like effects of inosine on adult MDD, and gut microbiomes are significantly associated with MDD via the microbiota-gut-brain axis. However, few studies have investigated possible associations between inosine and gut microbiota in adolescents with MDD. The current study investigated the potential antidepressant effects of inosine in adolescent male C57BL/6 mice. After 4 weeks of chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) stimulation, the mice were assessed by body weight, the sucrose preference test (SPT), open field test, and the elevated plus maze (EPM). The microbiota compositions of feces were determined by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Inosine significantly improved CUMS-induced depressive and anxiety-like behaviors in adolescent mice including SPT and EPM results. Fecal microbial composition differed in the CON+saline, CUMS+saline, and CUMS+inosine groups, which were characterized by 126 discriminative amplicon sequence variants belonging to Bacteroidetes and Firmicute at the phylum level and Muribaculaceae and Lachnospiraceae at the family level. Muribaculaceae was positively associated with depressive and anxiety-like behaviors. KEGG functional analysis suggested that inosine might affect gut microbiota through carbohydrate metabolism and lipid metabolism pathways. The results of the study indicated that inosine improved depressive and anxiety-like behaviors in adolescent mice, in conjunction with the alteration of fecal microbial composition. Our findings may provide a novel perspective on the antidepressant effects of inosine in children and adolescents.

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  3. Brain Behav Immun · 2025 · PMID 39694341

    Bifidobacterium longum CECT 30763 improves depressive- and anxiety-like behavior in a social defeat mouse model through the immune and dopaminergic systems.

    Tamayo M, Agusti A, Molina-Mendoza GV, Rossini V, Frances-Cuesta C, Tolosa-Enguís V et al.

    Adolescence is a crucial period marked by profound changes in the brain. Exposure to psychological stressors such as bullying, abuse or maltreatment during this developmental period may increase the risk of developing depression, anxiety and comorbid cardiometabolic conditions. Chronic psychological stress is associated with behavioral changes and disruption of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, leading to corticosterone overproduction in rodents and changes in both the immune system and the gut microbiome. Here, we demonstrate the ability of Bifidobacterium longum CECT 30763 (B. longum) to ameliorate adolescent depressive and anxiety-like behaviors in a chronic social defeat (CSD) mouse model. The mechanisms underlying this beneficial effect are related to the ability of B. longum to attenuate the inflammation and immune cell changes induced by CSD after the initial stress exposure through the induction of T regulatory cells with enduring effects that may prevent and mitigate the adverse consequences of repeated stress exposure on mental and cardiometabolic health. B. longum administration also normalized dopamine release, metabolism and signaling at the end of the intervention, which may secondarily contribute to the reversal of behavioral changes. The anti-inflammatory effects of B. longum could also explain its cardioprotective effects, which were reflected in an amelioration of the oxidative stress-induced damage in the heart and improved lipid metabolism in the liver. Overall, our findings suggest that B. longum regulates the links between the immune and dopaminergic systems from the gut to the brain, potentially underpinning its beneficial psychobiotic and physiological effects in CSD.

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  4. Pharmacol Biochem Behav · 2020 · PMID 32194087

    Scaffold hopping of agomelatine leads to enhanced antidepressant effects by modulation of gut microbiota and host immune responses.

    An Q, Li C, Chen Y, Yang Y, Song R, Zhou L et al.

    The mechanisms underlying the pathophysiology of depression remain elusive, and the development of novel, effective antidepressant drugs remains necessary. A dihydroquinoline analog of agomelatine (AGO), N-(2-(7-methoxy-3,4-dihydroisoquinolin-1-yl)ethyl)acetamide hydrochloride (NMDEA), was synthesized by employing a scaffold-hopping strategy in our previous study. In this study, NMDEA was demonstrated to attenuate depression-related behaviors in mice models of chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS), using a sucrose preference test, a forced swimming test, and a tail suspension test. However, the antidepressant mechanism of NMDEA appears to differ from that for AGO. Based on the analysis of fecal microbiota from mice, stress can alter the richness of the gut bacterial community, increasing the expression of immune-modulating microbiota, such as Clostridia, and decreasing the expression of probiotic bacteria, such as Lactobacillus. Treatment with NMDEA was able to recover the richness and to regulate the dysbiosis among bacterial species. Several studies have demonstrated that the gut microbiota population can induce inflammatory processes. To explore the effects of NMDEA on the suppression of pro-inflammatory factors, we used Western blotting to analyze the levels of interleukin 1 beta (IL-1β), interleukin 6 (IL-6), p65, and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS). NMDEA suppressed the activation of IL-1β and IL-6, in the hippocampus, and IL-1β, IL-6, p65, and iNOS, in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced BV-2 cells. These results suggested that NMDEA may affect the microbiota-inflammasome-brain axis, regulating relevant neuro-inflammatory markers and gut microbiota. Our data also suggested that using small molecules to modify the gut microbiota population or alter inflammasome signaling may represent a new therapeutic opportunity for the mitigation of depression.

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  5. J Affect Disord · 2021 · PMID 32979562

    Shotgun metagenomics reveals both taxonomic and tryptophan pathway differences of gut microbiota in bipolar disorder with current major depressive episode patients.

    Lai WT, Zhao J, Xu SX, Deng WF, Xu D, Wang MB et al.

    BACKGROUND: The microbiome-gut-brain axis, especially the microbial tryptophan biosynthesis and metabolism pathway (MiTBamp), is closely connected to bipolar disorder with current major depressive episode (BPD). METHODS: We performed shotgun metagenomics sequencing (SMS) of faecal samples from 25 BPD patients and 28 healthy controls (HCs). Except for the microbiota taxa and MiTBamp analyses, we also built a classification model using the Random Forests (RF) and Boruta algorithm to find the microbial biomarkers for BPD. RESULTS: Compared to HCs, the phylum Bacteroidetes abundance was significantly reduced, whereas that of the Actinobacteria and Firmicutes were significantly increased in BPD patients. We also identified 38 species increased and 6 species decreased significantly in the BPD group. In the MiTBamp, we identified that two Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) orthologies (KOs) (K00658 and K00837) were significantly lower in the BPD, and five KOs (K01696, K00382, K00626, K01667, and K03781) were significantly higher in the BPD group. We also identified significant genera and species which were closely related to these KOs. Finally, RF classification based on gut microbiota at the genus level can achieve an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.997. LIMITATIONS: The features of cross-sectional design, limited sample size, the heterogeneity of bipolar disorders, and a lack of serum/plasma tryptophan concentration measurements. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings enable a better understanding of changes in gastrointestinal microbiome and MiTBamp in BPD. Alterations of microbes may have potential as biomarkers for distinguishing the BPD patients form HCs.

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  6. J Nutr Health Aging · 2026 · PMID 42628247

    A pilot study of daily blueberry intake modulates the gut microbiota enzyme commissions in older, sedentary adults with mild depressive symptoms.

    Millar CL, Chopra MP, Morgan X, Green EA, Wolfe A, Pierce KA et al.

    BACKGROUND: Fiber and anthocyanins in blueberries have potential to modify the gut microbiome and metabolites that are relevant to depression in older adults. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to preliminarily determine the effect of blueberry consumption on the gut microbiome, metabolites, and depressive symptoms. DESIGN: Sedentary, older adults (≥65y) with mild depressive symptoms were enrolled in a randomized, double-blind, parallel-arm, placebo-controlled pilot study. Participants consumed 48 g/day of blueberry powder (∼2 cups of fresh berries) or placebo for 3 months. Metagenomic sequencing measured the abundance of fecal bacterial species and genes, liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry evaluated gut-derived fecal short chain fatty acids (SCFA), and validated questionnaires evaluated depressive symptoms before and after the intervention. PARTICIPANTS: Eighteen participants who were predominantly female and white completed the intervention (Placebo Group, n = 8, mean age: 75 ± 6; Blueberry Group, n = 10, mean age: 71 ± 4). RESULTS: Measures of species abundance, MetaCyc pathways, and metabolites did not change. There were statistically significant in the gene abundance of several Enzyme Commissions (EC) of the gut microbiome within the Blueberry Group-including EC 3.6.3.31 Polyamine Transporting ATPase, which is involved in the production of the neurotransmitter, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). CONCLUSION: While there were no statistically significant differences in changes in depressive symptoms between groups, the magnitude of reduction in depressive symptom severity appeared greater, with smaller variability in the Blueberry Group, which was paired with minor changes in the gut microbial ECs. Our data are preliminary and warrant additional studies to investigate the link between blueberries, the gut-microbiome, and mood in older adults.

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  7. Brain Behav Immun · 2019 · PMID 31063848

    Persistent central inflammation and region specific cellular activation accompany depression- and anxiety-like behaviours during the resolution phase of experimental colitis.

    Dempsey E, Abautret-Daly Á, Docherty NG, Medina C, Harkin A

    Depression and anxiety-related psychological symptoms are increasingly recognised as important co-morbidities in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) -induced colitis is an animal model of IBD in which afferent activation of the gut-brain axis can be assessed and explored as a source of behavioural change. Exposure of adult male Wistar rats to DSS (5%) in drinking water induced distal colitis. In parallel to local inflammatory responses in the gut wall, increased expression of IL-6 and iNOS was found in the cerebral cortex and an increase in ventricular volume. Immunoreactivity of immediate early gene FosB/ΔFosB activation was measured as an index of cellular activation and was increased in the nucleus accumbens and dorsal raphe nucleus in acutely colitic animals. Following resolution of the acute colitic response, sustained anhedonia in the saccharin preference test, immobility in the forced swim test, reduced burying behaviour in the marble burying test, and mild signs of anxiety in the elevated plus maze and light/dark box were observed. Central increases in iNOS expression persisted during the recovery phase and mapped to reactive microglia, particularly those found in the parenchyma surrounding circumventricular regions. Evidence of associated nitration was also found. Sustained increases in ventricular volume and reduced T2 magnetic resonance relaxometry time in cortical regions were observed during the recovery period. FosB/ΔFosB activation was evident in the dorsal raphe during recovery. Persistent central inflammation and cellular activation may underpin the emergence of symptoms of depression and anxiety in experimental colitis.

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  8. Transl Psychiatry · 2017 · PMID 28556833

    Blockade of interleukin-6 receptor in the periphery promotes rapid and sustained antidepressant actions: a possible role of gut-microbiota-brain axis.

    Zhang JC, Yao W, Dong C, Yang C, Ren Q, Ma M et al.

    Depression is a common, severe and chronic psychiatric disease. Although the currently available antidepressants have been used in the treatment of depression, their beneficial effects are limited. Accumulating evidence suggests that pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-6 (IL-6) have an important role in the pathogenesis of depression. This study was undertaken to examine whether anti-mouse IL-6 receptor antibody (MR16-1) induces antidepressant effects in a social defeat stress model. Intravenous injection of MR16-1 induced rapid-onset and long-lasting antidepressant effects in susceptible mice after social defeat stress through its anti-inflammatory actions. In contrast, intracerebroventricular injection of MR16-1 induced no antidepressant effects in susceptible mice. Furthermore, treatment with MR16-1 could significantly normalize alterations in the expression of synaptic proteins (postsynaptic density protein 95 and α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptor 1) and dendritic spine density in the brain regions of susceptible mice. Gut microbiota analysis using 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing showed that MR16-1 significantly improved decreased Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio in susceptible mice. It also significantly improved decreased levels of Oscillospira in susceptible mice. These findings suggest that peripheral IL-6 has a key role in the pathogenesis of depression and that the blockade of IL-6 receptor in the periphery might have rapid-onset and long-lasting antidepressant effects by normalizing the altered composition of gut microbiota in susceptible mice after social defeat stress. Therefore, the blockade of IL-6 receptor in the periphery shows promise as a novel therapeutic approach for depressed patients with higher IL-6 blood levels.

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  9. J Agric Food Chem · 2018 · PMID 30040410

    Clostridium butyricum Attenuates Chronic Unpredictable Mild Stress-Induced Depressive-Like Behavior in Mice via the Gut-Brain Axis.

    Sun J, Wang F, Hu X, Yang C, Xu H, Yao Y et al.

    Abnormal gut microbiome has been associated with depression. The mechanism of probiotics against depression remains unclear. This study aimed to determine whether Clostridium butyricum (Cb) could attenuate chronic unpredictable mild stress-induced depressive-like behavior and its possible mechanisms. Male C57BL/6 mice were subjected to chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) and were treated with Cb. Depressive-like behavior was evaluated by a series of behavioral tests. The levels of cerebral 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor and intestinal were measured. Cb treatment significantly improved CUMS-induced depressive-like behavior in mice. Meanwhile, Cb treatment exhibited prominent effects, increasing 5-HT and GLP-1 and upregulating BDNF expression. Furthermore, Cb-treated mice showed increased secretion of GLP-1 and upregulated GLP-1R expression. Taken together, our results demonstrate an antidepressive effect of Cb in CUMS mice partially attributed to stimulation of intestinal GLP-1 secretion and activation of cerebral GLP-1R.

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  10. J Affect Disord · 2025 · PMID 39716675

    Multiomics analysis reveals aberrant tryptophan-kynurenine metabolism and immunity linked gut microbiota with cognitive impairment in major depressive disorder.

    Zhang Q, Zhao W, Yun Y, Ma T, An H, Fan N et al.

    OBJECTIVE: Cognitive impairment occurs throughout the entire course of and affects the work and life of patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). The gut microbiota, kynurenine pathway (KP) and inflammatory response may have important roles in the mechanism of cognitive impairment in MDD patients. Consequently, our goal was to investigate the association among the gut microbiota, inflammation, KP, and cognition in MDD. METHOD: We enrolled patients with MDD (N = 86) and healthy controls (HCs, N = 120) in this research. The study involved participant data regarding the levels of serum inflammatory factors (interleukin [IL]-1β, IL-4, IL-6, brain-derived neurotropic factor [BNDF], migration inhibitory factor [MIF], tumor necrosis factor [TNF]-α, vascular endothelial growth factor [VEGF]), gut microbiota and cognitive function (MCCB) were collected. RESULTS: Patients demonstrated poorer cognitive function. Gut microbiota, such as Bacteroide, Prevotella, Faecalibacterium and Parabacteroides between MDDs and HCs were significantly different. Moreover, in patients with MDD, we found that different microbiomes were related to cognition and that Acidaminococcus was positively correlated with multiple domains of cognition. Allisonella and Acidaminococcus were significantly positively correlated with BDNF and negatively correlated with MIF. Alloprevotella, Blautia, and Megamonas were positively correlated with kynurenine/tryptophan (KYN/TRP). Acidaminococcus was negatively correlated with 3-hydroxykynurenine (3-HK). BDNF levels was significantly positive correlated with kynurenic acid (KA) and quinolinic acid (QA). CONCLUSION: The results of the present study suggest that the gut microbiota is associated with cognitive function, cytokine levels and KP metabolism in patients with MDD; however, the mechanism of the interaction between cognition and gut microbiota in MDD patients require further investigation.

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