CLINICAL TRIAL article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Mood Disorders
This article is part of the Research TopicExploring Neuroinflammatory Pathways in Depression: Insights from Microglia and Astrocytes Interactions Towards Novel Antidepressant TherapiesView all articles
Olink proteomics identifies FGF-19 as a treatment-responsive inflammatory biomarker associated with acupuncture intervention in young females with mild depression
Provisionally accepted
Zhongxian LI
Zitong Jiao
Min PengPan ZhangHaiyan XuRuiming ChenQiaoyu JiJingjing LiLihua ChenBeibei Zhao
Wenbin Fu*
Zhou Peng*- Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Mild depression in women is a distinct disorder with unclear immune mechanisms. This study aims to identify peripheral inflammatory biomarkers and to explore acupuncture's immunomodulatory effects via Olink proteomics. Thirty female participants (18–45 years) were assigned to healthy controls (HC), mild depression (MD), and acupuncture treatment (ACU). Plasma samples were analyzed using the Olink® Target 96 Inflammation panel for differentially expressed proteins (DEPs)(Approval No. KY-2023-005-02), then analyzed for enrichment using Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG). Correlations between DEPs and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale-17 items (HAMD-17) and Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) scores were assessed. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was conducted on an expanded cohort (n=40/group) to validate key findings. Compared with HC, 15 proteins were significantly downregulated in MD (no proteins were upregulated), including FGF-19, SIRT2, and AXIN1. After acupuncture, six proteins were further downregulated, and three (FGF-19, FGF-5, IL-2) were significantly upregulated. ELISA validation confirmed that FGF-19, the sole protein significantly altered, was inversely correlated with depression scores and exhibited decreased expression in MD that was reversed by acupuncture. FGF-19's bidirectional expression profile positions it as a promising inflammation-related biomarker and a potential treatment-responsive marker for mild depression in young females, also an indicator of acupuncture efficacy.
Keywords: Acupuncture, FGF-19, Inflammatory biomarkers, Mild depression, Olinkproteomics
Received: 13 Nov 2025; Accepted: 29 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 LI, Jiao, Peng, Zhang, Xu, Chen, Ji, Li, Chen, Zhao, Fu and Peng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Wenbin Fu
Zhou Peng
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.