The study found that certain neurons and microglia act differently in people with depression, affecting brain circuits that control emotion and stress. This discovery could lead to treatments that target these specific cells.. Illustration by the Author.
Scientists at McGill University and the Douglas Institute conducted research which revealed depression causes genetic changes in two distinct brain cells known as neurons and microglia.
The researchers used Douglas-Bell Canada Brain Bank post-mortem brain tissue to analyse single-cell genomic data from 59 depressed individuals and 41 non-depressed participants. They found that depression causes gene expression problems in excitatory neurons, which control mood and stress responses and in a particular microglial cell type, which regulates brain inflammation.
The study shows that depression produces measurable and detectable cell-specific changes in the brain and how depression manifests. Led by Dr. Gustavo Turecki, the research offers a clearer understanding of depression biology, which replaces outdated depression theories about the condition.
The finding opens the door to targeted approaches which focus on particular cellular processes. The researchers plan to study how these cellular changes affect brain function and explore potential treatment methods that target these specific alterations to improve depression therapies .
Reference:
Turecki, G., Nagy, C., & Li, Y. (2025). Single-nucleus chromatin accessibility profiling identifies cell types and functional variants contributing to major depression . Nature Genetics. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-025-02249-4
