A gut bacterium and an industrial chemical may help explain the biology of depression

May 1 • Detox

The gut-brain connection continues to yield some of the most important research in medicine, and a study from Harvard Medical School, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, may offer one of the clearest mechanistic explanations yet for how the microbiome influences mood.

Researchers identified a probable causal link between higher levels of the gut bacterium Morganella morganii and major depressive disorder, and then traced the connection to a specific molecule it produces. The twist: the molecule gets its unusual structure by incorporating diethanolamine (DEA), an industrial chemical found in hundreds of everyday consumer products, into its cell membrane.

Once produced, this compound triggers an immune response in the gut that drives elevated levels of IL-6, an inflammatory protein that multiple independent studies have linked to depression. The proposed pathway, in plain terms, is that a gut microbe absorbs a common environmental chemical, produces an inflammatory compound, and that inflammation appears to travel upstream and affect how we feel.

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A gut bacterium and an industrial chemical may help explain the biology of depression