(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Researchers have discovered a chemical that
specifically blocks people's ability to experience the bitter aftertaste of
artificial sweeteners such as saccharin. The key is a molecule known as
GIV3727 that specifically targets and inhibits a handful of human bitter
taste receptors.
According to the researchers, the discovery of the first commercially
relevant small-molecule bitter taste inhibitor also opens the door to
further discovery of compounds for other taste-enhancement purposes, such as
masking the unpleasant taste of medicines or other commonly encountered
bitter flavors.
"To our knowledge, this is the first published example of a bitter receptor
inhibitor with taste activity in humans," Jay Slack of Givaudan Flavors
Corporation in Cincinnati, was quoted as saying. "We applied high-throughput
screening and medicinal chemistry approaches to develop specific inhibitors
for human bitter taste receptors. While these methods are commonly used in
the development of new drug candidates, ours is the first successful
application of this technology for bitter taste modulation. This flavoring
substance could be broadly used to improve the palatability of foods and
beverages containing acesulfame K and saccharin."
Acesulfame K is a calorie-free sweetener sold as Sunett and Sweet One.
Saccharin comes in the familiar little pink packets under the trade name
Sweet'N Low.
"Recent evidence indicates that some bitter receptors are also expressed in
other nongustatory tissues with proposed roles in the detection of noxious
airborne chemicals or regulation of glucose homeostasis via the
gastrointestinal tract," the researchers said. "Bitter receptor antagonists
hold promise as tools to explore the role of bitter receptor signaling in
these other systems."
Controlled human taste tests of artificially sweetened solutions with and
without GIV3727 confirmed that the ingredient had the desired effect. That
is, almost everyone selected the beverages containing GIV3727 as being
significantly less bitter. Importantly, GIV3727 did not interfere with
participants' ability to taste sweetness.
The researchers said that there remains some possibility that GIV3727 might
work for some people a little better than it does for others, noting that
even though the chemical completely abolished bitter taste receptors in the
laboratory, some people were apparently still able to detect bitterness to
some degree.
SOURCE: Current Biology, May 27, 2010
