Biomarkers of physical frailty and sarcopenia: Coming up to the place?

Abstract

Physical frailty and sarcopenia (PF&S) recapitulates all the hallmarks of aging and has become a focus in geroscience. Factors spanning muscle-specific processes (e.g., mitochondrial dysfunction in skeletal myocytes) to systemic changes (e.g., inflammation and amino acid dysmetabolism) have been pinpointed as possible contributors to PF&S pathophysiology. However, the search for PF&S biomarkers allowing the early identification and tracking of the condition over time is ongoing. This is mainly due to the phenotypic heterogeneity of PF&S, its unclear pathophysiology, and the frequent superimposition of other age-related conditions. Hence, presently, the identification of PF&S relies upon clinical, functional, and imaging parameters. The adoption of multi-marker approaches (combined with multivariate modeling) has shown great potential for addressing the complexity of PF&S pathophysiology and identifying candidate biological markers. Well-designed longitudinal studies are necessary for the incorporation of reliable biomarkers into clinical practice and for unveiling novel targets that are amenable to interventions.