Mechanisms and clinical relevance of hypercapnia-induced skeletal muscle atrophy in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)

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Project Summary: Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)/pulmonary emphysema often develop locomotor muscle dysfunction, which is associated with worse clinical outcomes including higher mortality. Retention of CO2 in the blood, or hypercapnia, is also frequent in these patients and similarly associated with higher mortality. The mechanisms that regulate these processes are currently unknown, and the available treatments have no effects on survival in this setting. Therefore, understanding the mechanisms controlling CO2- retaining COPD-driven muscle dysfunction could help develop strategies to prevent and reverse that, with potentially survival and quality of life benefits for these patients. Muscle dysfunction in COPD is associated with abnormal protein turnover and metabolism. The present extension proposes to investigate the contribution of dysregulated cellular metabolism to the pathophysiology of CO2-retaining COPD. The hypothesis that supports this application is that hypercapnia attenuates COPD-induced reduced fiber respiration via LKB1-AMPK-driven mitochondrial biogenesis. To investigate that hypothesis, we will determine the specific mechanisms that regulate CO2-driven dysfunctional metabolism. As LKB1/AMPK controls CO2 sensing and protein turnover in skeletal muscle, hypercapnia’s effect on metabolism will be investigated with LKB1 knockout cells exposed to elevated CO2. This research represents a substantive departure from the status quo by focusing on the contribution of metabolism to the long-term effects of COPD-driven muscle dysfunction, and specifically by identifying AMPK as major players COPD muscle respiration and function.