Advances in Clinical and Experimental Medicine

Title abbreviation: Adv Clin Exp Med
JCR Impact Factor (IF) – 1.736
5-Year Impact Factor – 2.135
Index Copernicus  – 168.52
MEiN – 70 pts

ISSN 1899–5276 (print)
ISSN 2451-2680 (online)
Periodicity – monthly

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Advances in Clinical and Experimental Medicine

2019, vol. 28, nr 9, September, p. 1263–1269

doi: 10.17219/acem/104542

Publication type: review article

Language: English

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Branched chain amino acids: Passive biomarkers or the key to the pathogenesis of cardiometabolic diseases?

Marta Siomkajło1,A,D, Jacek Daroszewski1,A,E,F

1 Department and Clinic of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Isotope Therapy, Wroclaw Medical University, Poland

Abstract

The metabolomic approach to research on lifestyle diseases has led to the discovery of new potential biomarkers of pathological conditions as well as key metabolic pathways that may become targets of therapeutic intervention. Current evidence supports plasma branched chain amino acids (BCAAs) as potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers of cardiometabolic diseases. However, the biological mechanisms of the associations that have been identified are still not completely understood and should be clarified before implementing BCAA-based biomarkers in the clinical setting. The most crucial issue that needs to be solved first is determining whether BCAA plasma profile disturbances are only passive biomarkers or whether they facilitate dysmetabolic processes. In this context, further research is also warranted to investigate the role of dietary BCAAs. Gaining this knowledge would be significant progress in molecular nutrition research, providing perspective for target therapeutic and prophylactic interventions. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the main hypotheses and mechanistic models that consider circulating BCAAs both as passive biomarkers and as contributors to cardiometabolic diseases.

Key words

amino acids, biomarker, metabolomics, BCAA, cardiometabolic diseases

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