Sarcopenia obesity (SO), a specific dis-ease with co-occurrence of obesity and sarcopenia, is shown clinically as abnormal accumulation of fat, decreased mass and strength of muscle, and in-creased risk of incidence and mortality of other chronic diseases. Currently, there exist various defi-nitions and diagnoses about SO in the various re-gions of the world. Its prevalence in populations el-evates in an age-dependent manner. This article summarized the possible pathogenesis of SO from the view of chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, insulin resistance, and Hippo pathway, subsequent-ly listed and analyzed potential pharmacological targets (fibroblast growth factor, CD44, adiponec-tin, etc) involved in treating SO, in order to provide new ideas for clinical diagnosis, treatment of SO pa-tients and research and development of innovative drugs.