Prospective association between plasma amino acids and three Multimorbidity patterns in older adults

The role of metabolomic profiling on different multimorbidity patterns remains unknown. This study aims to assess the prospective relationship between plasma concentrations of amino acids and three different multimorbidity patterns: musculoskeletal and mental multimorbidity, cardiometabolic multimorbidity, and cardiopulmonary multimorbidity. The study comprised a total of 1488 older adults from the Seniors-ENRICA 2 Spanish cohort. Plasma concentrations of alanine, glutamine, glycine, histidine, branched-chain amino acids, and aromatic amino acids were measured. Generalized estimating equation models were used to assess the prospective association between amino acids and multimorbidity patterns. Higher plasma concentrations of branched-chain amino acids as leucine [Odds Ratio (OR) per 1-SD increment = 1.05, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.01-1.08)], isoleucine (OR = 1.05, 95% CI = 1.01-1.08), and valine (OR = 1.04, 95% CI = 1.01-1.08) were related to cardiometabolic multimorbidity, while lower concentrations of glycine (OR = 0.95, 95% CI = 0.91-0.99) and tyrosine (OR = 0.96, 95% CI = 0.93-0.98) were also associated with the same multimorbidity pattern. On the other hand, higher plasma concentrations of glutamine (OR = 1.18, 95% CI = 1.03-1.34) were related to cardiopulmonary multimorbidity. In conclusion, branched-chain amino acids may serve as risk markers of cardiometabolic multimorbidity in older adults. Plasma concentrations of other amino acid species such as glycine, tyrosine, and glutamine could also help to identify cardiometabolic and cardiopulmonary multimorbidity patterns.