In 2019 I wrote about research suggesting anti-inflammatory medications might help some people with major depression. At the time, the idea that depression could have roots in the immune system felt almost radical. A new study published in Advanced Science (2025) takes this idea much further and what the researchers found might change how we think about certain types of depression.
What Makes This Study Different
Most depression research looks at one thing at a time: brain scans, blood tests, or questionnaires. This team did something unusual. They examined the same patients across three different biological systems, simultaneously.
They looked at blood proteins (what’s floating around in your bloodstream), immune cells (specifically, what genes your white blood cells are turning on), and miniature brain models grown from the patients’ own cells.
The patients were women with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder with atypical features and psychotic symptoms people who often don’t get better with standard antidepressants.
What They Found: The Immune System Was the Missing Link
The results paint a picture of a body on high alert.
In the blood, patients showed elevated levels of several key proteins. One called DCLK3 is known to help neurons survive…
