Age-specific differential changes on gut microbiota composition in patients with major depressive disorder.

Jian-Jun Chen,Wei Wang,Shun-Jie Bai,Jing Xie,Sirong He,Chan-Juan Zhou,Liang Fang,Peng Xie,Bin Wang

doi:10.18632/aging.102775

Abstract

Emerging evidence has shown the age-related changes in gut microbiota, but few studies were conducted to explore the effects of age on the gut microbiota in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). This study was performed to identify the age-specific differential gut microbiota in MDD patients. In total, 70 MDD patients and 71 healthy controls (HCs) were recruited and divided into two groups: young group (age 18-29 years) and middle-aged group (age 30-59 years). The 16S rRNA gene sequences were extracted from the collected fecal samples. Finally, we found that the relative abundances of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes were significantly decreased and increased, respectively, in young MDD patients as compared with young HCs, and the relative abundances of Bacteroidetes and Actinobacteria were significantly decreased and increased, respectively, in middle-aged MDD patients as compared with middle-aged HCs. Meanwhile, six and 25 differentially abundant bacterial taxa responsible for the differences between MDD patients (young and middle-aged, respectively) and their respective HCs were identified. Our results demonstrated that there were age-specific differential changes on gut microbiota composition in patients with MDD. Our findings would provide a novel perspective to uncover the pathogenesis underlying MDD.

Highlights

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is viewed as a major public health problem globally
The orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) model built with young healthy controls (HCs) and young MDD patients showed an obvious difference in microbial abundances between these two groups (Figure 2A)
The OPLS-DA model built with middle-aged HCs and middle-aged MDD patients showed an obvious difference in microbial abundances between these two groups (Figure 3A)

Summary

Introduction

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is viewed as a major public health problem globally. MDD has a substantial impact on society and individuals, such as increasing economic burden and decreasing labor productivity [1,2,3]. More than 300 million people are estimated to suffer from MDD, which is equivalent to 4.4% of the world’s population [4]. The pathogenesis of MDD is still unclear. Some theories have been developed to explain the biological mechanisms of MDD, such as neurotrophic alterations www.aging-us.com and neurotransmission deficiency [5, 6]. None of these theories has been universally accepted. There is a pressing need to identify novel pathophysiologic mechanisms underlying this disease

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