3mo ago

Harvard Scientists Uncover How Gut Bacteria Fuel Inflammation and Depression

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Harvard researchers have found that M. morganii may contribute to depression by producing an inflammatory molecule.

Biochemical analyses reveal how the gut bacterium Morganella morganii may contribute to some cases of major depressive disorder.
The bacterium incorporates an environmental contaminant into one of its molecules, triggering inflammation — a known factor in disease development.
These findings suggest the contaminant could serve as a biomarker and further support the idea that major depressive disorder may have autoimmune connections.

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Considering how prevalent depression is I wonder how long it will be before we find out that a common processed food additive enhances the growth of Morganella morganii over other bacteria.
- I was reading something similar a few months ago about how the American obesity epidemic came out of nowhere and exploded in the 20th and 21st centuries, and places with the highest antibiotic use also has a correlated obesity rate.
  I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of our modern chronic issues that seemed to come from nowhere (not that they didn't exist before but just became much more prevalent) will be traced in some way back to effects from messing with the human microbiome.
  
  As a lifelong fattie, I have been assured for decades that all I have to do is eat right and exercise but I'm just too lazy so I deserve what I get. Tiny invisible creatures can affect my health? Next thing you'll be telling me is that having my outhouse next to the well is causing my family to get sick. We both know it's demons. FFS.
  Please excuse me while I crawl back into my depression hole, partially mitigated by SSRIs, which somehow also induce GI issues for reasons completely unknown to science. Can't wait for RFK's camps, maybe I can finally get healthy there.
  
  places with the highest antibiotic use also has a correlated obesity rate
  I agree that antibiotics should only be taken with extreme prejudice, but playing devils advocate you could also conclude that the antibiotics are working since illness correlates with malnutrition.
- M. Morganii is not at fault here. It's a contaminant, DEA (diethanolamine). Good old Morgan, a normal dweller among healthy gut microbiome, only mistakes the molecules of this bitch for sugar alcohol and incorporates them in the substance it produces triggering a response in the immune system. It's all in the article.
  
  How is it not at fault when it says its making it instead of the sugar alcohol? Its the supply for the DEA in the gut.

Reference: “Unusual Phospholipids from Morganella morganii Linked to Depression” by Sunghee Bang, Yern-Hyerk Shin, Sung-Moo Park, Lei Deng, R. Thomas Williamson, Daniel B. Graham, Ramnik J. Xavier and Jon Clardy, 16 January 2025, Journal of the American Chemical Society.
ABSTRACT: A multifactorial association study detected a probable causal connection between the prevalence of Morganella morganii in the gut microbiome and the incidence of major depressive disorder (MDD) in the human host. A bioassay-guided fractionation approach identified bacterially produced metabolites that induced pro-inflammatory immune responses. The metabolites are unusual phospholipids that resemble conventional cardiolipins, in which diethanolamine (DEA) replaces the central glycerol. These molecular chimeras of endogenous metabolites from phospholipid biosynthetic pathways and the industrially produced micropollutant DEA activate TLR2/TLR1 receptors and induce the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, especially IL-6. Their activity in conventional immunomodulatory assays largely parallels that of immunogenic cardiolipins with conventional structures. The molecular mechanism connecting these chimeric cardiolipins to MDD is supported by other studies and has implications for conditions other than MDD.
DOI: 10.1021/jacs.4c15158 Link to the paper under discussion: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.4c15158 PDF Link: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/epdf/10.1021/jacs.4c15158?ref=article_openPDF
Looks like IL-6 production is the mechanism of ramping up inflammatory response.

The redundant, awful writing of AI is hard to take. I’m trying to decide if my neurons feel more strain and numbness by reading this type of writing or by watching an advertisement.

12 comments