Novel treatment for thirst

治疗口渴的新方法

• 批准号: 2445626
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: King's College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2445626
• 关键词: Novel; treatment; thirst

Thirst is a major driver for drinking fluids which are essential to maintaining whole body homeostasis. Although the mechanisms for dehydration-induced thirst are well known and understood, there is relatively little data concerning thirst perception in healthy, normally hydrated, individuals. In particular, an understanding of how the perception of thirst is created in the mouth is largely unknown. Building on our characterisation of the oral mucosal pellicle- an adhered layer of salivary mucins on the oral mucosa, which maintains the normal hydrated feeling of the mouth, our recent data suggests there is an accumulation of sodium within the mucosal pellicle. We propose that accumulation of sodium affects the lubrication behaviour of the mucins so that they become more viscous and then sticky which we perceive as a dry mouth/ thirst. This accumulation of sodium occurs at a steady rate at rest as saliva has low amounts of sodium (around 10 - 50 mM) so that thirst occurs periodically even in normal hydrated subjects. Our preliminary study in patients undergoing dialysis indicated this accumulation of sodium is faster due to higher salivary levels of sodium and leads to the constant thirst perceived in this group. This project will further explore how the accumulation of sodium in the mucus layer affects mucin rheology/ tribology and thus perception of dry mouth/thirst. The role of the industrial partner is to supply chewing gums containing sodium chelators to remove sodium from the mucus layer.

口渴是饮用液体的主要驱动力，而液体对维持全身内稳态至关重要。虽然脱水引起的口渴的机制是众所周知的和理解的，但关于健康的、正常水合的个体的口渴感知的数据相对较少。特别是，对口渴的感知如何在口中产生的理解在很大程度上是未知的。基于我们对口腔粘膜膜的表征-口腔粘膜上唾液粘蛋白的粘附层，其维持口腔的正常水合感觉，我们最近的数据表明在粘膜膜内存在钠的积累。我们认为钠的积累会影响粘蛋白的润滑行为，使它们变得更加粘稠，然后粘粘的，我们认为这是口干/口渴。这种钠的积累在静止时以稳定的速率发生，因为唾液具有低量的钠（约10 - 50 mM），使得即使在正常水合的受试者中也周期性地发生口渴。我们在接受透析的患者中进行的初步研究表明，由于唾液中的钠水平较高，钠的积累更快，并导致该组患者持续口渴。该项目将进一步探索粘液层中钠的积累如何影响粘蛋白流变学/摩擦学，从而影响口干/口渴的感知。工业合作伙伴的作用是提供含有钠螯合剂的口香糖，以去除粘液层中的钠。