Somatosensory Factors in Human Taste and Flavor Perception

描述(申请人提供)：没有比引导和激励选择和消费安全和营养的食物更重要的感官功能了。这种功能很大程度上是由口腔和鼻子的感官系统执行的，这两个系统共同产生了食物的味道。虽然研究几乎完全集中在味觉和鼻后嗅觉上，但味道的热、机械和化学审美成分也很重要。因此，这个项目的长期目标是了解体感刺激对味道感知的作用方式和机制。与过去的资助期一样，本时期的心理物理学研究导致发现了以前未被认识到的温度和触摸对味觉和化学合成的影响。拟议的项目将集中于温度对甜味、苦味和口腔化学合成的不同影响，这些影响对味觉和化学药物转导的分子和细胞机制有影响。具体地说，目标1将检验温度主要通过调节适应的速度和程度，可能通过改变T1R2-T1R3甜味受体的构象来影响甜味的假设。目的2研究阳离子通道TPRM5在热味知觉现象中的潜在作用及其在甜味适应中的作用。目的3研究温度对苦味知觉的不同影响，以确定这些影响与苦味转导的不同模式之间的关系，包括Trpm5的可能贡献。最后，目标4将测量温度如何影响盐和酸的味道和化学美感，具体目标是测试这一假设，即它们的化学美感主要是通过不同的热敏感Trp通道(即TRPV1和TRPA1)引起的。这些目标结合在一起，将导致对温度影响味道和味道的方式的更完整的理解，同时也为主要在动物模型中开发的关于人类化学感觉机制的假说提供独特的测试。因此，这类翻译研究对于促进我们对人类细胞和分子机制的理解非常重要，这些机制可能会导致解决对饮食和健康不利的味觉和味道功能障碍的新策略。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): There is no more vital sensory function than guiding and motivating the selection and consumption of safe and nutritious foods. Much of this function is carried-out by the sensory systems of the mouth and nose which together give rise to the flavor of foods. Although research has focused almost exclusively on the senses of taste and retronasal olfaction, also important are the thermal, mechanical, and chemesthetic components of flavor. The long-term goal of this project is therefore to understand in what ways and via which mechanisms somatosensory stimuli contribute to flavor perception. As in past funding periods, psychophysical studies in the current period have led to the discovery of previously unrecognized effects of temperature and touch on taste and chemesthesis. The proposed project will focus on differential effects of temperature on sweet taste, bitter taste, and oral chemesthesis that have implications for the molecular and cellular mechanisms of gustatory and chemesthetic transduction. Specifically, Aim 1 will test the hypothesis that temperature affects sweet taste primarily by modulating the rate and degree of adaptation, possibly by changes in conformation of the T1R2- T1R3 sweet taste receptor. Aim 2 will investigate the potential role of the cation channel TPRM5 in the perceptual phenomenon of Thermal Taste and its possible contribution to the counteraction of sweet taste adaptation. Aim 3 will investigate the differentia effects of temperature on bitter taste perception with the goal of determining the relationship of these effects to different modes of bitter taste transduction, including the possible contribution f TRPM5. Finally, Aim 4 will measure how temperature influences the taste and chemesthetic sensations of salts and acids with the specific goal of testing the hypothesis that their chemesthetic qualities are evoked primarily via different thermally-sensitive TRP channels (i.e. TRPV1 vs. TRPA1). Together these aims will lead to a more complete understanding of the ways in which temperature affects taste and flavor, while also providing unique tests of hypotheses about chemosensory mechanisms in humans that have been developed primarily in animal models. Translational research of this kind is therefore important for advancing our understanding of cellular and molecular mechanisms in humans that could lead to new strategies for addressing dysfunctions of taste and flavor that adversely affect diet and health.