# Identification of Metabolomic Profiles for Sarcopenia Traits in Older Whites and Blacks

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE HEALTH SCI CTR · 2020 · $599,077

## Abstract

Sarcopenia, characterized by the age-related loss of muscle mass and function, is a major health problem
incurring a huge economic burden with the rapid growth of the aging older population. Its etiology is largely
unknown, and no approved medication is available. There is an urgent need for biomarkers aimed at
understanding the mechanisms and improving the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of sarcopenia. Recently
developed definitions of sarcopenia include both low muscle mass and impaired muscle function, highlighting
the necessity of considering different physiological components of sarcopenia in obtaining a fundamental and
comprehensive understanding of the complex biological mechanisms underlying the disorder. The emerging
metabolomics technology provides a powerful tool for biomarker discovery. However, applications of the
metabolomics approach in sarcopenia research are rather limited. The race/sex specificity and generality of
sarcopenia-related metabolites have never been investigated. The Goal of the proposed study is to identify novel
metabolomic markers/profiles associated with multiple key sarcopenia-related traits in older whites and blacks
of both sexes using a powerful state-of-the-art liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS)-based
metabolomics approach. We will leverage our large ongoing Louisiana Osteoporosis Study (LOS) and its
extensive data archive to efficiently recruit and examine 800 older white and black subjects (≥ 60 years and 200
subjects for each race-sex-group). Sarcopenia-related traits including muscle mass, strength, and function will
be measured using the appendicular lean mass/body mass index ratio (ALM/BMI), hand grip strength, and usual
gait speed, respectively. Anchored on the LOS, we will enroll 300 subjects as the discovery set and another 300
as the validation set. We will select 100 LOS subjects with high and 100 with low risk for sarcopenia, defined by
both ALM/BMI and hand grip strength values in the lower or upper half of the distributions among the participants
in the LOS archive, as the testing set. At year 4, we will follow up 100 participants enrolled at year 1 as the
prediction set. The Specific Aims are to: 1) identify novel metabolites associated with sarcopenia traits
(including race-, sex- and trait-specific/shared ones) using an untargeted metabolomics approach with relative
quantification in the discovery set; 2) validate the trait-related metabolites identified in Aim 1 using the same
untargeted method in the validation set, elucidate/confirm the identities of metabolites using an established
workflow, and develop a targeted LC-MS assay with absolute quantification for further validation in both the
discovery and validation sets; and 3) assess the power of the validated metabolites in discriminating subjects
with high risk from those with low risk for sarcopenia in the testing set and examine their predictive values for
longitudinal changes in sarcopenia-related traits in the pred...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9999419
- **Project number:** 5R01AG061917-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE HEALTH SCI CTR
- **Principal Investigator:** HUI SHEN
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $599,077
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-01 → 2024-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9999419

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9999419, Identification of Metabolomic Profiles for Sarcopenia Traits in Older Whites and Blacks (5R01AG061917-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9999419. Licensed CC0.

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