Our gastrointestinal system functions to digest and absorb ingested food, but it is also home to trillions of microbes that change across time, nutrition, lifestyle, and disease conditions. Largely commensals, these microbes are gaining prominence with regards to how they collectively affect the function of important metabolic organs, from the adipose tissues to the endocrine pancreas to the skeletal muscle. Muscle, as the biggest utilizer of ingested glucose and an important reservoir of body proteins, is intricately linked with homeostasis, and with important anabolic and catabolic functions, respectively. Herein, we provide a brief overview of how gut microbiota may influence muscle health and how various microbes may in turn be altered during certain muscle disease states. Specifically, we discuss recent experimental and clinical evidence in support for a role of gut-muscle crosstalk and include suggested underpinning molecular mechanisms that facilitate this crosstalk in health and diseased conditions. We end with a brief perspective on how exercise and pharmacological interventions may interface with the gut-muscle axis to improve muscle mass and function.

Introduction: The focus on intrinsic capacity (IC) could help clinicians to design interventions to improve the health of the older population. This review aims to map the current state of the art in the field of multi-domain interventions based on the IC framework, to allow health professionals in identifying personalized clinical interventions, oriented to empower the older people with a holistic and positive approach.

Methods: A systematic review of the literature was conducted in July 2021 analyzing manuscripts and articles of the last 10.5 years from PubMed, Scopus, Embase, Google Scholar and Elsevier databases. A total of 12 papers were included.

Results: The majority of successful interventions are based on a goal setting approach where the older people are involved in the definition of the strategy to follow to remain active and independent. None of the study have used the IC as a framework to design a clinical intervention.

Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, no other reviews are reported in the literature regarding the IC. Our study offers several research directions, which may take the existing debates to the next level.