Fig. 2.

Verification of the expression levels of eight differentially expressed miRNAs in three groups of serum samples by PCR. (A) Quantitative real-time PCR was used to detect the expression levels of several differentially expressed miRNAs obtained from the previous microarray screening in healthy controls, depressed patients, and the KXS-treated groups after 8 weeks of administration. The relative expression levels of miRNAs in serum samples were calculated by the 2-ΔΔCt method with Ce_miR-39_1 as the internal reference gene. (B) A microRNA–gene-pathway network analysis of 4 preselected target miRNAs. Compared between groups, *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001; ****P < 0.0001.