Changing Taste by Targeting the Ion Channel TRPM5
نویسنده
چکیده
The taste system has evolved to make nutritious foods attractive and toxic substances aversive so as to achieve a maximal health benefit for the organism. However, evolution has not kept up with changes in human diet and lifestyle, including the development of life-saving, but bitter tasting pharmaceuticals, and the over abundance of high calorie, sweet tasting, food. The recent identification of molecular components of the taste system promises to pave the way for the rational design of flavor modifiers that enhance sweetness without caloric consequences or reduce the bitterness of prescription drugs, thereby improving human health. One such molecule is the ion channel TRPM5, which is expressed in taste receptor and other chemosensory cells and is required for bitter and sweet taste sensations. Knowledge of the structure, function and tissue localization of TRPM5 provides a basis for developing pharmacological screens for small molecule taste modifiers.
منابع مشابه
The transduction channel TRPM5 is gated by intracellular calcium in taste cells.
Bitter, sweet, and umami tastants are detected by G-protein-coupled receptors that signal through a common second-messenger cascade involving gustducin, phospholipase C beta2, and the transient receptor potential M5 (TRPM5) ion channel. The mechanism by which phosphoinositide signaling activates TRPM5 has been studied in heterologous cell types with contradictory results. To resolve this issue ...
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