Staying informed on the latest in cachexia, sarcopenia, and wasting disorders research is essential yet challenging. The SCWD Digest offers concise updates and expert insights into significant studies and developments. We highlight and link directly to leading research, making it easier for healthcare professionals to access and apply groundbreaking findings. Our goal: empower the medical community to advance patient care worldwide efficiently.
Evaluation of body composition (BC) is a set of biomarkers, including fat, muscle and bone, that allows the quantification of an individual's composition at different levels of complexity (whole body, tissues, macroscopic and microscopic). Recently, BC has gained medical interest...
BACKGROUND
Heme oxygenases, HO-1 (Hmox1) and HO-2 (Hmox2), regulate skeletal muscle homeostasis by degrading heme and generating carbon monoxide (CO), a bioactive signalling molecule. Although HO-1 is known to influence muscle fibre composition and mitochondrial function, the role of HO-2 in...
BACKGROUND
Healthcare fragmentation typically predicts poor outcomes, yet its relationship with frailty across different age groups remains unexplored. We examined how frailty modifies the association between care patterns and mortality in middle-aged and older adults from two rapidly ageing Asian societies.
METHODS
We...
Cancer cachexia, characterized by weight loss, muscle wasting, and anorexia, complicates cancer treatment and adversely affects patient outcomes. Both tumor-derived and host inflammatory factors are implicated in aspects of cachexia. The search for circulating mediators of cancer cachexia has focused...
Cachexia is a metabolic wasting syndrome affecting many patients with cancer, with poor survival outcomes. Disturbed lipid metabolism is a hallmark of cachexia, and our previous work has identified increased levels of circulating ceramides, which are bioactive lipids with adverse...
BACKGROUND
Osteosarcopenia, the combination of osteoporosis and sarcopenia, is a geriatric syndrome linked to functional decline, falls, and fragility fractures. The interaction among bone, muscle, and their shared pathophysiology is driven by mechanical, metabolic, and hormonal factors. With global population aging...
BACKGROUND
Older adults with (pre)frailty are vulnerable to deteriorations in physical functioning, mobility and independence. Evidence for frailty interventions utilizing existing services within primary healthcare structure is limited. The PromeTheus trial aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a home-based, multifactorial, interdisciplinary...
Muscle mass is a strong indicator of overall health in older adults. In healthy individuals, an adequate muscle mass is maintained through a balance between anabolic pathways, such as the mTOR pathway (mammalian target of rapamycin), and catabolic pathways, including...
Cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome (CKMS) is a recently launched by American Heart Association to express the importance of interplay among metabolic risk factors, chronic kidney disease, and the cardiovascular system which has profound impacts on morbidity and mortality. The common pathologic processes...
BACKGROUND
Sarcopenia is inconsistently defined, and its definition might not adequately capture muscle failure, underlying disability, and other adverse outcomes in older adults. We aimed to develop and validate an evidence-based, outcome-driven model of muscle failure.
METHODS
In this derivation and multicohort validation...
BACKGROUND
In a recent Phase 2 trial in patients with cancer cachexia, the anti-GDF-15 antibody ponsegromab resulted in increased body weight, appetite, muscle mass and physical activity. This study provides compelling evidence that targeting the GDF-15 pathway may offer a viable...
BACKGROUND
Muscle atrophy occurs during physiological (i.e., fasting) and pathological conditions (i.e., cancer) and anticipates death. Since not all patients will undergo muscle wasting, it would be highly useful to identify them soon to intervene early. We aim to generate a...
Cancer cachexia is a multifactorial syndrome characterized by involuntary loss of skeletal muscle and adipose tissue that is often resistant to nutritional support. The branched-chain amino acids (BCAA: leucine, isoleucine, and valine) stimulate protein synthesis, yet BCAA-targeted therapies have yielded...
BACKGROUND
Sarcopenic obesity (SO) is closely associated with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). However, traditional body composition-based diagnostic criteria for SO fail to adequately incorporate insulin resistance, a key pathophysiological mechanism. This study aimed to investigate the association between SO, defined using...
