Professor Ma's team reveals how a high-fat diet induces depression.

A research team led by Professor Ma Xiancang from the Department of Psychiatry at the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU) has published a research paper in Molecular Psychiatry, a Nature sub-journal and top international psychiatry journal, titled Aspirin alleviates long-term high-fat diet-induced depressive-like behavior in male mice via suppressing arachidonic acid-mediated microglial activation and neuroinflammation.

The study reveals the cascading pathway through which a long-term high-fat diet induces depression, via "gut microbiota dysbiosis → arachidonic acid metabolic storm → microglial activation → neuroinflammation," and discovers that aspirin can block this chain, demonstrating significant antidepressant potential.

The first authors of the paper are assistant researchers Zhao Binbin and Fan Yajuan, with professors Ma Xiancang, Wang Yanan, and Wang Yunpeng serving as co-corresponding authors. This achievement marks another milestone for Professor Ma's team in the "genetic variation-gut microbiota-immune-brain axis."

This latest finding follows the team's previous systematic breakthroughs published in Molecular Psychiatry in 2019, Nature Communications in 2020, J Clin Invest in 2023, Theranostics and Neuron in 2024, and Advanced Science in 2026.

From microbial disorders and lipid storms to immune activation and neuroinflammation, the team is drawing a clear molecular map for the metabolic etiology of psychiatric disorders.