Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Jan 19, 2025; 15(1): 101134
Published online Jan 19, 2025. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i1.101134
Gut-brain axis as a bridge in obesity and depression: Mechanistic exploration and therapeutic prospects
Rui-Ying Fang, Xiao-Rui Pan, Xin-Xing Zeng, Zheng-Zheng Li, Bo-Fan Chen, Hai-Min Zeng, Jie Peng
Rui-Ying Fang, Xiao-Rui Pan, Xin-Xing Zeng, Zheng-Zheng Li, Bo-Fan Chen, Hai-Min Zeng, Jie Peng, The Second Clinical Medical College, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Jiangxi Medical College, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330006, Jiangxi Province, China
Co-first authors: Rui-Ying Fang and Xiao-Rui Pan.
Author contributions: Peng J designed and implemented the content of this manuscript; Fang RY and Pan XR wrote the manuscript; Zeng XX, Li ZZ, Chen BF and Zeng HM contributed to this paper; Peng J revised and reviewed the manuscript. All authors reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript. Fang RY and Pan XR contributed equally to this work as co-first authors.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jie Peng, MD, Doctor, The Second Clinical Medical College, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Jiangxi Medical College, Nanchang University, No. 1 Minde Road, Donghu District, Nanchang 330006, Jiangxi Province, China. jie_peng@email.ncu.edu.cn
Received: September 5, 2024
Revised: November 2, 2024
Accepted: November 18, 2024
Published online: January 19, 2025
Processing time: 104 Days and 4.9 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: The gut-brain axis is a crucial pathway that links the intestines to the brain and influences host health through microbial metabolites, neural signals, immune responses, and endocrine pathways. Metabolic byproducts of microbes, such as short-chain fatty acids, lipopolysaccharide and bile acids, modulate appetite, emotional regulation, and immune-inflammatory responses via the gut-brain axis and are closely associated with the onset and progression of obesity and depression. Modulating the gut-brain axis, for example, through the use of prebiotics, specific ketogenic diet, and the supplementation of antioxidants, provides new therapeutic strategies for obesity and depression. Future research needs to delve deeper into the mechanisms of the gut-brain axis to develop more effective interventions.