Gut microbiome-wide association study of depressive symptoms

Depression is one of the most poorly understood diseases due to its elusive pathogenesis. There is an urgency to identify molecular and biological mechanisms underlying depression and the gut microbiome is a novel area of interest. Here we investigate the relation of fecal microbiome diversity and composition with depressive symptoms in 1,054 participants from the Rotterdam Study cohort and validate these findings in the Amsterdam HELIUS cohort in 1,539 subjects. We identify association of thirteen microbial taxa, including genera Eggerthella, Subdoligranulum, Coprococcus, Sellimonas, Lachnoclostridium, Hungatella, Ruminococcaceae (UCG002, UCG003 and UCG005), Lachnospiraceae UCG001, Eubacterium ventriosum and Ruminococcus gauvreauii group, and family Ruminococcaceae with depressive symptoms. These bacteria are known to be involved in the synthesis of glutamate, butyrate, serotonin and gamma amino butyric acid (GABA), which are key neurotransmitters for depression. Our study suggests that the gut microbiome composition may play a key role in depression.

Djawad Radjabzadeh, Jos A. Bosch, André G. Uitterlinden, Aeilko H. Zwinderman, M. Arfan Ikram, Joyce B. J. van Meurs, Annemarie I. Luik, Max Nieuwdorp, Anja Lok, Cornelia M. van Duijn, Robert Kraaij, Najaf Amin