Circulating Biomarkers of Accelerated Sarcopenia in Respiratory Diseases

• Published in: Biology (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 9; no. 10; p. 322
• Main Authors: Qaisar, Rizwan, Karim, Asima, Muhammad, Tahir, Shah, Islam
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01-10-2020; MDPI
• Subjects: Age; Aging; Agrin; Asthma; Biological markers; Biomarkers; Blood levels; CAF22; Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Complications and side effects; COPD; Diagnosis; Dkk-3; Gait; Gene expression; Genotype & phenotype; Glycoproteins; Laboratories; Lung diseases; MicroRNAs; miRNA; miRs; Musculoskeletal system; Obstructive lung disease; Oxidative stress; Phenotypes; Physiological aspects; Plasma; Plasma levels; Respiratory diseases; Risk factors; Sarcopenia; Skeletal muscle; Spirometry; Tuberculosis; Pakistan; United Arab Emirates; United States > US; Dubai United Arab Emirates
• ISSN: 2079-7737; 2079-7737
• DOI: 10.3390/biology9100322

Skeletal muscle dysfunction is a critical finding in many respiratory diseases. However, a definitive biomarker to assess muscle decline in respiratory diseases is not known. We analyzed the association of plasma levels of glycoprotein Dickkopf-3 (Dkk-3), c-terminal agrin fragment-22 (CAF22) and microRNAs miR-21, miR-134a, miR-133 and miR-206 with hand-grip strength (HGS) and appendicular skeletal mass index (ASMI) in male, 54–73-year-old patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD), asthma or pulmonary TB (n = 83–101/group). Patients with respiratory diseases showed a reduction in HGS and gait speed, while a reduction in ASMI was only found in patients with pulmonary TB. Among the sarcopenia indexes, HGS showed the strongest correlation with plasma CAF22, miR-21 and miR-206 levels while ASMI showed the strongest correlation with Dkk-3 and miR-133 in respiratory diseases. We found a modest-to-significant increase in the plasma markers of inflammation, oxidative stress and muscle damage, which had varying degrees of correlations with Dkk-3, CAF22 and selected micro RNAs (miRs) in respiratory diseases. Taken together, our data show that plasma levels of Dkk-3, CAF22 and selected miRs can be useful tools to assess accelerated sarcopenia phenotype in the elderly with respiratory diseases.