Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Jan;17(1):2-8.
doi: 10.30773/pi.2019.08.09. Epub 2019 Oct 7.

Neuroinflammation, Gut-Brain Axis and Depression

Alper Evrensel  1 , Barış Önen Ünsalver  2 , Mehmet Emin Ceylan  3
Affiliations

Neuroinflammation, Gut-Brain Axis and Depression

Alper Evrensel et al. Psychiatry Investig. 2020 Jan.

Abstract

Psychiatric diseases are the manifestations that result from the individual's genetic structure, physiology, immunology and ways of coping with environmental stressors. The current psychiatric diagnostic systems do not include any systematic characterization in regard to neurobiological processes that reveal the clinical picture in individuals who got psychiatric diagnosis. It is obvious that further research in different areas is needed to understand the psychopathology. The problems in the functions of immune system and the correlation of neuroinflammatory processes with psychiatric disorders have been one of the main research topics of psychiatry in recent years and have contributed to our understanding of psychopathology. Recent advances in the fields of immunology and genetics as well as rapidly increasing knowledge on the effects of immunological processes on brain functions have drawn attention to the correlations between psychiatric disorders and immune system dysfunctions. There are still unfilled gaps in the biology, pathophysiology, and treatment of major depressive disorder, which is quite prevalent among the psychiatric disorders, can lead to significant disability, and frequently has a recurrent course. It appears that low-grade chronic neuroinflammation plays a key role in forming a basis for the interaction between psychological stress, impaired gut microbiota and major depressive disorder. In this review, the role of neuroinflammation in the etiopathogenesis of depression and the mechanism of action of the gut-brain axis that leads to this are discussed in the light of current studies.

Keywords: Depression; Gut-brain axis; Immune system; Microbiota; Neuroinflammation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Gerhard DM, Wohleb ES, Duman RS. Emerging treatment mechanisms for depression: focus on glutamate and synaptic plasticity. Drug Discov Today. 2016;21:454–464. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ledford H. Medical research: if depression were cancer. Nature. 2014;515:182–184. - PubMed
    1. Smith K. Mental health: a world of depression. Nature. 2014;515:181. - PubMed
    1. Belmaker RH, Agam G. Major depression disorder. N Engl J Med. 2008;358:55–68. - PubMed
    1. Corfield EC, Yang Y, Martin NG, Nyholt DR. A continuum of genetic liability for minor and major depression. Transl Psychiatry. 2017;7:e1131. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources