Progress and challenges in exploring the pathogenesis of depressive disorders via RNA sequencing.

RNA sequencing reveals shared immune-inflammatory, synaptic, and mitochondrial dysfunctions across diverse depressive disorders, advancing understanding of their molecular basis.

• Why it matters: Depressive disorders are highly heterogeneous with limited treatment responses, highlighting the need for detailed molecular insights to improve diagnosis and therapy.
• What they did: The review synthesizes recent advances using bulk, single-cell, and single-nucleus RNA-seq on various depression subtypes, identifying common and distinct transcriptomic features.
• The result: Findings support core pathogenic mechanisms and subtype-specific pathways, guiding future research toward precision diagnostics and personalized treatments despite current technical challenges.