{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,9]],"date-time":"2026-07-09T14:22:43Z","timestamp":1783606963583,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":51,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,9]],"date-time":"2026-07-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1783555200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Microbiol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Adolescent depression differs substantially from adult depression in neurodevelopmental and pathophysiological aspects, with gut microbiota dysbiosis recognized as a key regulator via the microbiota-gut-brain axis. Nevertheless, the age-specific microbial and metabolic signatures of adolescent depression remain poorly defined.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>125 participants including 33 adolescents with depression, 62 adults with depression, and 30 healthy adolescent controls were recruited. Full-length 16S rRNA gene sequencing was applied to profile gut microbial composition and functional metabolism.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Alpha diversity was markedly reduced in adolescents with depression relative to healthy adolescent, whereas no significant difference was observed between adolescent and adult depression. PCoA and age-adjusted PERMANOVA revealed distinct microbial community separation across the three groups, with disease status contributing substantially to community divergence. A significant Group \u00d7 Age interaction indicated that depression may exerted age-dependent effects on gut microbiota. At the genus level, 19 differential taxa were identified between depressed and healthy adolescents, with\n                      <jats:italic>Akkermansia, Faecalibacterium, Prevotella<\/jats:italic>\n                      , and\n                      <jats:italic>Roseburia<\/jats:italic>\n                      depleted, while only\n                      <jats:italic>Eubacterium hallii<\/jats:italic>\n                      group was enriched. Four genera differed between adolescent and adult depression, and 3 genera exhibited obvious age-interaction patterns, suggesting that adolescent depression disrupts microbial developmental trajectories and induces an adult-like dysbiotic phenotype. A Random Forest diagnostic model based on differential bacterial biomarkers achieved achieved promising exploratory performance in distinguishing depressed adolescents from healthy controls (5-CV AUC = 0.966), but failed to differentiate adolescent from adult depression. PICRUSt2 prediction further revealed that gut microbiota metabolism alterations in depression are primarily driven by depressive status.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Our findings reveal both age-conserved and adolescent-specific microbial signatures, providing candidate microbial signatures and hypothesis-generating functional insights.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fmicb.2026.1849097","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,9]],"date-time":"2026-07-09T13:50:00Z","timestamp":1783605000000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Gut microbiota dysbiosis in adolescent depression: a comparative analysis with adult depression and healthy adolescent"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Yongchun","family":"Ma","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Sleep Medicine, Tongde Hospital of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou","place":["Zhejiang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Liyuan","family":"Luo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Sleep Medicine, Tongde Hospital of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou","place":["Zhejiang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Huichao","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Sleep Medicine, Tongde Hospital of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou","place":["Zhejiang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"YuXin","family":"Zhou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Sleep Medicine, Tongde Hospital of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou","place":["Zhejiang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shasha","family":"Xiang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Food Science and Bioengineering, Zhejiang Gongshang University","place":["Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China"]},{"name":"Weifang Elbe Biotechnology Co., Ltd.","place":["Weifang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiaohong","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Food Science and Bioengineering, Zhejiang Gongshang University","place":["Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xuan","family":"Zhu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Food Science and Bioengineering, Zhejiang Gongshang University","place":["Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"343r","DOI":"10.1126\/scitranslmed.aad7121","article-title":"Antibiotics, birth mode, and diet shape microbiome maturation during early life","volume":"8","author":"Bokulich","year":"2016","journal-title":"Sci. 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