The DOI matches its Crossref record; 49 of the 49 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Current Perspectives on Gut Microbiome Dysbiosis and Depression
Open accessAbstract
The human gut microbiome partakes in a bidirectional communication pathway with the central nervous system (CNS), named the microbiota-gut-brain axis. The microbiota-gut-brain axis is believed to modulate various central processes through the vagus nerve as well as production of microbial metabolites and immune mediators which trigger changes in neurotransmission, neuroinflammation, and behavior. Little is understood about the utilization of microbiome manipulation to treat disease. Though studies exploring the role of the microbiome in various disease processes have shown promise, mechanisms remain unclear and evidence-based treatments for most illnesses have not yet been developed. The animal studies reviewed here offer an excellent array of basic science research that continues to clarify mechanisms by which the microbiome may affect mental health. More evidence is needed, particularly as it relates to translating this work to human subjects. The studies presented in this paper largely demonstrate encouraging results in the treatment of depression. Limitations include small sample sizes and heterogeneous methodology. The exact mechanism by which the gut microbiota causes or alters neuropsychiatric disease states is not fully understood. In this review, we focus on recent studies investigating the relationship between gut microbiome dysbiosis and the pathogenesis of depression. This article is based on previously conducted studies and does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“The participation of gut microbiome in bidirectional communication pathway with the central nervous system (CNS) was named the microbiota-gut-brain axis, which is believed to regulate various central processes through microbial metabolites [98].”
From Circular RNAs in depression: Biogenesis, function, expression, and therapeutic potential (2021) · cites this paper as [98]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
American Psychiatric Association (2013) · doi:10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596 · Cited by 116,369
Selective Cortical Undercutting As a Means of Modifying and Studying Frontal Lobe Function in Man
Scoville, W. B. (1949) · Journal of neurosurgery · doi:10.3171/jns.1949.6.1.0065 · Cited by 7,374
Obesity alters gut microbial ecology
Ley, R. E., Bäckhed, F., Turnbaugh, P., Lozupone, C. A., Knight, R. D., & Gordon, J. I. (2005) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0504978102 · Cited by 6,176
Host microbiota constantly control maturation and function of microglia in the CNS
Erny, D., Hrabě de Angelis, A. L., Jaitin, D., Wieghofer, P., Staszewski, O., David, E., Keren-Shaul, H., Mahlakoiv, T., Jakobshagen, K., Buch, T., et al. (2015) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nn.4030 · Cited by 3,569
Ferrari, A. J., Charlson, F. J., Norman, R. E., Patten, S. B., Freedman, G., Murray, C. J. L., Vos, T., & Whiteford, H. A. (2013) · PLoS Medicine · doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001547 · Cited by 3,115 · cited 1×
“Depression is one of the most prevalent mental health disorders in the USA and the second leading cause of disability worldwide [10].”
BackgroundThe Effect of Diet on the Human Gut Microbiome: A Metagenomic Analysis in Humanized Gnotobiotic Mice
Turnbaugh, P. J., Ridaura, V. K., Faith, J. J., Rey, F. E., Knight, R., & Gordon, J. I. (2009) · Science Translational Medicine · doi:10.1126/scitranslmed.3000322 · Cited by 3,058
Dysfunction of the intestinal microbiome in inflammatory bowel disease and treatment
Morgan, X. C., Tickle, T. L., Sokol, H., Gevers, D., Devaney, K. L., Ward, D. V., Reyes, J. A., Shah, S. A., LeLeiko, N., Snapper, S. B., et al. (2012) · Genome Biology · doi:10.1186/gb-2012-13-9-r79 · Cited by 2,713
Dethlefsen, L., Huse, S., Sogin, M. L., & Relman, D. A. (2008) · PLoS Biology · doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060280 · Cited by 2,361
Altered fecal microbiota composition in patients with major depressive disorder
Jiang, H., Ling, Z., Zhang, Y., Mao, H., Ma, Z., Yin, Y., Wang, W., Tang, W., Tan, Z., Shi, J., et al. (2015) · Brain, Behavior, and Immunity · doi:10.1016/j.bbi.2015.03.016 · Cited by 2,275
The Economic Burden of Adults With Major Depressive Disorder in the United States (2005 and 2010)
Greenberg, P. E., Fournier, A.-A., Sisitsky, T., Pike, C. T., & Kessler, R. C. (2015) · The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry · doi:10.4088/jcp.14m09298 · Cited by 1,779
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Items 201–216 of 216
Baldi, S., Bertorello, S., Cei, F., Rocca, A. I. L., Scianaro, V., Bartolucci, G., Mannaioni, G., Amedei, A., & Gerace, E. (2026) · Food and Chemical Toxicology · doi:10.1016/j.fct.2026.115929
Figueredo, A. J., Peñaherrera‐Aguirre, M., Hertler, S. C., & Blumler, M. A. (2026) · Evolutionary Psychological Science · doi:10.1007/s40806-025-00453-3
Динамика состава кишечного микробиома у пациентов с постинсультным болевым синдромом
Усова, Н. Н., Стома, И. О., Ковалев, А. А., Осипкина, О. В., Шафорост, А. С., & Зятьков, А. А. (2025) · Неврология и нейрохирургия Восточная Европа · doi:10.34883/pi.2025.15.4.044
Xie, X., & Li, X. (2026) · Cancer Biotherapy and Radiopharmaceuticals · doi:10.1177/10849785251414759
Mohammed, V., Shanmugaraja, M., & Sureshkumar, K. (2026) · Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1177/02537176261420447
Mosavat, S. H., Sahraian, A., Kalani, M., Namjoyan, F., & Ghasemi, Y. (2026) · BMC Psychiatry · doi:10.1186/s12888-026-07903-7
“Moreover, studies have pointed out that certain microbial dysbiosis in the gut is related to depression, especially on the inflammatory state and gut barrier integrity [17–19].”
Al, K. F., Wammes, M., Warren, M., Lee, J. E., Walton, D. M., O’Connor, C. P., Cameron, L., Burton, J. P., & Osuch, E. A. (2026) · Translational Psychiatry · doi:10.1038/s41398-026-04046-x
“Previous research has shown that gut microbes can in fl uence brain function and behaviour through their production of neurologically active metabolites [17 – 20].”
Research advances on estrogen deficiency leading to depression
Wang, C., Chang, Y., & Sheng, H. (2026) · Translational Neuroscience · doi:10.1515/tnsci-2025-0399
“Recent studies have revealed its dysregulation inhibits serotonin synthesis, disrupts HPA axis function, and impairs neural plasticity, ultimately leading to depressive mood and behavior [111 – 113].”
Zuo, T., Lu, Y., & Li, Y. P. (2025) · Springer handbooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-032-01636-2_37
Association of depression with keratitis: A bidirectional 2-sample Mendelian randomization study
Zhang, Y., Niu, D., Chen, M., Ji, M., Zhang, J., & Zhou, R. (2026) · Medicine · doi:10.1097/md.0000000000048882
“[2,3] Current therapeutic strategies are often suboptimal, and a substantial proportion of patients fail to achieve complete remission.”
Mental health and gut-brain crosstalk: implications for depression and Alzheimer's disease
Skourti, K., Katsaitis, F., Pavlidi, P., Anesti, M., Balla, J., Emvalomatis, A., Kokras, N., Dalla, C., & Sotiropoulos, I. (2026) · Neuroscience Applied · doi:10.1016/j.nsa.2026.107023
“In line with these findings, patients with depressive symptoms frequently exhibit GI inflammation and bowel diseases, and therefore symptoms such as abdominal discomfort, bloating and nausea, possibly due to disrupted gut-brain axis pathways (Capuco et al., 2020).”
InfluentialKuang, X., & Zheng, X. (2026) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences · doi:10.3390/ijms27167291
“Human studies have identified that patients with depression exhibit gut microbiota dysbiosis alongside the hyperactivity of the HPA axis and elevated cortisol levels [61].”
Jiani, W., Yinghe, Y., Jiani, Z., Zhao, T., Liu, Y., & Bo, J. (2026) · Discover Neuroscience · doi:10.1186/s13064-026-00322-0
“Multi-omics analysis further linked these gut microbial changes to changes in tryptophan metabolism: fewer indole producing bacteria correlated with lower fecal IPA and ILA levels [5, 23].”
InfluentialHuang, K., & Tang, W. (2026) · Journal of Molecular Neuroscience · doi:10.1007/s12031-026-02596-9
“…and X-17,325 are all unidentified compounds and do not have relevant chemical identifiers (HMDB, KEGG ID, PubChem) abundances of Bifidobacterium, Ruminococcus, and Esch - erichia/Shigella in patients with severe depression (Cheung et al. 2019; Capuco et al. 2020), aligning with our finding.”
Fatigue, depressive symptoms, and stress relate to diet quality and food Choices
Kossowska-Wywiał, M., & Brzezicka, A. (2026) · Nutritional Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.nupsyc.2026.100038
Gut microbial allies and adversaries in SARS-CoV-2 infection
Tolosa-Enguís, V., Fernández-Murga, M. L., Benítez‐Páez, A., Francés‐Cuesta, C., Garde, J., Llombart-Cusscac, A., Molina-Mendoza, G. V., Avilés‐Alía, A. I., Geller, R., Mendoza‐García, L., et al. (2026) · Current Research in Microbial Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.crmicr.2026.100661
“Other viral respiratory infections, such as influenza, may be associated with gut microbiota alterations that predispose patients to secondary lung infections (Xu et al., 2021, Cenit et al., 2017, Rob et al., 2025, Capuco et al., 2020).”
Metadata
- Authors
- Capuco, A., Urits, I., Hasoon, J., Chun, R., Gerald, B., Wang, J. K., Kassem, H., Ngo, A. L., Abd-Elsayed, A., Simopoulos, T., Kaye, A. D., & Viswanath, O.
- Affiliations
- Georgetown University (US)
- Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (US)
- University of Arizona College of Medicine- Phoenix (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- Mount Sinai Medical Center (US)
- University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
- Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport (US)
- Creighton University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Urits, Ivan
- ORCID
- Venue
- Advances in Therapy
- Published
- 2020-03-04
- Volume
- 37
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 1328-1346
- ISSN
- 0741-238X (ISSN-L)
- 1865-8652
- PMC
- PMC7140737
- OpenAlex
- W3010636850
- Cited by
- 216
- References
- 49
- Citations by year
- 2026: 18 · 2025: 29 · 2024: 33 · 2023: 59 · 2022: 41 · 2021: 27 · 2020: 7
- FWCI
- 3.21
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Advances in Therapy (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gut microbiota and health
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Biological Psychiatry › Tryptophan and brain disorders
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Gastroenterology › Gastrointestinal motility and disorders
- Keywords
- gut dysbiosis, depression, microbiota-gut-brain axis, vagus nerve, microbial metabolites, neuroinflammation, neurotransmission, neuropsychiatric disorders, animal models of depression, microbiota-based therapy
- MeSH terms
- Gastrointestinal Microbiome, Animals, Brain, Central Nervous System, Depression, Humans, Dysbiosis
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
