MentalHealthDaily

Depression vs. Schizophrenia: Microglial TSPO and KYNA Signals

by GLOOM

MHD featured image for microglial and kynurenine pathway patterns across depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.

A 2026 systematic review found that microglia-related immune signals do not line up cleanly with psychiatric diagnosis labels: major depression showed frontolimbic TSPO-PET increases, while schizophrenia showed elevated kynurenic acid in cerebrospinal fluid.1 The strongest interpretation is that immune-brain markers may sort subgroups better than DSM categories do. Research Highlights Depression had the clearest TSPO-PET …

Awake Mouse Brain Motion Was Driven by Abdominal Coupling, Not Heartbeat

by GLOOM

MHD featured image for abdominal coupling and awake brain motion research.

A 2026 Nature Neuroscience study found that awake mouse brain motion was driven mainly by locomotion-linked abdominal muscle activity, not by respiration or cardiac rhythm; the researchers mapped displacement vectors at 134 cortical sites in 24 mice and modeled how that motion could push fluid out of brain tissue.1 The result sharpens the body-brain mechanics …

Knee Osteoarthritis Pain and Fatigue Linked to Serum and CSF Metabolites

by GLOOM

MHD featured image for knee osteoarthritis pain and fatigue metabolomics.

A 2026 targeted metabolomics study of knee osteoarthritis found 33 altered serum metabolites and 10 altered cerebrospinal-fluid metabolites, but the symptom signal split by compartment: serum amino acids, bile acids, and acylcarnitines tracked pain or fatigue, while CSF histamine and 3-hydroxyphenylacetic acid tracked central pain and sleep measures.1 Research Highlights 33 serum metabolites shifted: knee …

ALS CSF Proteomics Found 399 Candidate Proteins and a 5-Protein Panel

by GLOOM

MHD featured image for ALS CSF proteomics and biomarker panels.

A 2026 cerebrospinal-fluid proteomics preprint involving 87 amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients, 89 healthy controls, and 61 neurological controls reported 399 ALS candidate proteins, complement markers that tracked disease stage, and a 5-protein panel that classified ALS vs. healthy controls with ROC AUC 0.95 after the best-known neurodegeneration markers were removed.1 Research Highlights CSF proteomics …