ArticleMolecular psychiatry2020
What does plasma CRP tell us about peripheral and central inflammation in depression?
Article in Molecular psychiatry, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT06856161 (A Novel Blood Test as a Differential Diagnosis and Drug Efficacy Biomarker in Mental Health), which is not on this map. Cited by 258 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
A Novel Blood Test as a Differential Diagnosis and Drug Efficacy Biomarker in Mental Health
Who cites it
258 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 427 citations in OpenAlex.
- Dynamic Cytokine Relationships Across the Blood-Brain Barrier in Humans and Nonhuman Primates-Implications for Psychiatric Illness: A Systematic Review.Biological psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Effect of Anti-Inflammatory Treatment on Depressive Symptom Severity and Anhedonia in Depressed Individuals With Elevated Inflammation: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.The American journal of psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- The association between inflammatory markers in blood and cerebrospinal fluid: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Molecular psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- Peripheral Inflammatory Markers in Subtypes and Core Features of Depression: A Systematized Review.Psychopathology · 2023Pooled it
- The relationship between immune and cognitive dysfunction in mood and psychotic disorder: a systematic review and a meta-analysis.Molecular psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Cancer-related inflammation and depressive symptoms: Systematic review and meta-analysis.Cancer · 2022Pooled it
- Effects of Dopaminergic Therapy with Levodopa (L-DOPA) on Fear and Anxiety-Related Circuits and Symptoms in Patients with Depression and Higher Inflammation.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2026Trial
- Sustained effects of repeated levodopa (L-DOPA) administration on reward circuitry, effort-based motivation, and anhedonia in depressed patients with higher inflammation.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2025Trial
- Effects of a diverse prebiotic fibre blend on inflammation, the gut microbiota and affective symptoms in metabolic syndrome: a pilot open-label randomised controlled trial.The British journal of nutrition · 2024Trial
- Inflamed but not impulsive: Acute inflammatory cytokine response does not impact prepotent response inhibition.Journal of affective disorders · 2023Trial
- The interaction between kynurenine pathway, suicidal ideation and augmentation therapy with minocycline in patients with treatment-resistant depression.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2023Trial
- Baseline C-reactive protein levels are predictive of treatment response to a neuroimmune modulator in individuals with an alcohol use disorder: a preliminary study.The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse · 2023Trial
- Functional connectivity in reward circuitry and symptoms of anhedonia as therapeutic targets in depression with high inflammation: evidence from a dopamine challenge study.Molecular psychiatry · 2022Trial
- Intravenous administration of LPS activates the kynurenine pathway in healthy male human subjects: a prospective placebo-controlled cross-over trial.Journal of neuroinflammation · 2021Trial
- Depression treatment response to ketamine: sex-specific role of interleukin-8, but not other inflammatory markers.Translational psychiatry · 2021Trial
- Associations between immuno-metabolic markers, working memory, and functional brain activation in depressive and anxiety disorders.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Monocyte abundance and glycolytic reprogramming associate with motivational impairment in depression.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2026Article
- Peripheral Inflammation and Sleep Loss Induce Coordinated Motivational Changes: An Experimental Two-Hit Stress Model.Journal of sleep research · 2026Article
- Toward actionable biomarkers in psychiatry: a collaborative roadmap for precision clinical trials. An ACNP position paper.NPP - digital psychiatry and neuroscience · 2026Article
- Immune markers mediate genetic relationships between immune diseases and psychiatric disorders.PLoS genetics · 2026Article
198 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Peripheral blood C-reactive protein (CRP) is a biomarker used clinically to measure systemic inflammation and is reproducibly increased in a subset of patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Furthermore, increased peripheral blood CRP in MDD has been associated with altered reward circuitry and increased brain glutamate in relation with symptoms of anhedonia. Nevertheless, the relationship between peripheral CRP and other peripheral and central markers of inflammation in depressed patients has not been established. Plasma (n = 89) and CSF (n = 73) was collected from medically stable, currently unmedicated adult outpatients with MDD. Associations among plasma and CSF CRP and plasma and CSF inflammatory cytokines (interleukin [IL]-6, tumor necrosis factor [TNF] and IL-1beta) and their soluble receptors/antagonists were examined. Relationships between plasma and CSF inflammatory markers and depressive symptoms including anhedonia and reduced motivation (RM) were also explored. Plasma CRP was correlated with multiple plasma inflammatory markers (all p < 0.05), and a strong correlation was found between plasma and CSF CRP (r = 0.855, p < 0.001). CSF CRP in turn correlated with CSF cytokine receptors/antagonists (all p < 0.05). Principal component analyses revealed clusters of CSF inflammatory markers that were associated with high plasma CRP (>3 mg/L) and correlated with depressive symptom severity. These findings were driven by CSF TNF, which correlated with RM (r = 0.236, p = 0.045), and CSF IL-6 soluble receptor, which correlated with anhedonia (r = 0.301, p = 0.010) in the sample as a whole and particularly females. CRP appears to be a peripheral biomarker that reflects peripheral and central inflammation and seems well-suited for guiding immunotherapies targeting TNF and IL-6 in patients with MDD.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.