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Review
. 2024 Apr 12;25(8):4300.
doi: 10.3390/ijms25084300.

Emerging Therapeutic Strategies in Sarcopenia: An Updated Review on Pathogenesis and Treatment Advances

Alfred Najm  1   2 , Adelina-Gabriela Niculescu  3   4 , Alexandru Mihai Grumezescu  3   4 , Mircea Beuran  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Emerging Therapeutic Strategies in Sarcopenia: An Updated Review on Pathogenesis and Treatment Advances

Alfred Najm et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Sarcopenia is a prevalent degenerative skeletal muscle condition in the elderly population, posing a tremendous burden on diseased individuals and healthcare systems worldwide. Conventionally, sarcopenia is currently managed through nutritional interventions, physical therapy, and lifestyle modification, with no pharmaceutical agents being approved for specific use in this disease. As the pathogenesis of sarcopenia is still poorly understood and there is no treatment recognized as universally effective, recent research efforts have been directed at better comprehending this illness and diversifying treatment strategies. In this respect, this paper overviews the new advances in sarcopenia treatment in correlation with its underlying mechanisms. Specifically, this review creates an updated framework for sarcopenia, describing its etiology, pathogenesis, risk factors, and conventional treatments, further discussing emerging therapeutic approaches like new drug formulations, drug delivery systems, stem cell therapies, and tissue-engineered scaffolds in more detail.

Keywords: clinical trials; drug delivery; new therapeutic agents; sarcopenia pathophysiology; sarcopenia treatment; stem cell therapy; tissue engineering.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
2018 operational definition of sarcopenia. Created based on information from [14,15].
Figure 2
Figure 2
Overview of sarcopenia risk factors.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Overview of emerging therapeutic agents for sarcopenia treatment.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Passive (above the dotted line) and active (below the dotted line) mitochondria delivery strategies. Reprinted from an open-access source [6].
Figure 5
Figure 5
Overview of the main features to be considered when designing a scaffold. Created based on information from [1].
Figure 6
Figure 6
The structure of clinical studies available on ClinicalTrials.gov as of February 2024.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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