Bart De Spiegeleer

1 Introduction Systemic muscle wasting is marked by an imbalance between protein synthesis and degradation in skeletal muscle, leading to significant muscle mass loss. Various muscle wasting types, including sarcopenia and cachexia, differ in causes, progression rates and biological pathways, although they share core transcriptional programs [1].

Peptides that pass through the blood-brain barrier (BBB) not only are implicated in brain-related pathologies but also are promising therapeutic tools for treating brain diseases, e.g., as shuttles carrying active medicines across the BBB. Computational prediction of BBB-penetrating peptides (B3PPs) has emerged as an interesting approach because of its ability to screen large peptide libraries in a cost-effective manner.