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You Have Taste Receptors In Your Lungs
timothy points out news of a study from the University of Maryland's School of Medicine that found bitter taste receptors on the smooth muscle lining airways in the lungs (abstract in Nature). Quoting:
"The taste receptors in the lungs are the same as those on the tongue. The tongue’s receptors are clustered in taste buds, which send signals to the brain. The researchers say that in the lung, the taste receptors are not clustered in buds and do not send signals to the brain, yet they respond to substances that have a bitter taste. ... 'I initially thought the bitter-taste receptors in the lungs would prompt a "fight or flight" response to a noxious inhalant, causing chest tightness and coughing so you would leave the toxic environment, but that’s not what we found,' says Dr. Liggett. ... The researchers tested a few standard bitter substances known to activate these receptors. 'It turns out that the bitter compounds worked the opposite way from what we thought. They all opened the airway more extensively than any known drug that we have for treatment of asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).'"
For Dunhill over Pariament and Davidoff over Benson & Hedges!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
When I was premed we experimented on fish with several neurotransmitters. Since I was in a frat, I eventually found myself doing shots of them (about 0.1cc each). They all tasted bitter.
They also gave me some stomach upset and one or two caused a little abdominal cramping. And I have become steadily more weird. Though since I started out weird enough to do neurotransmitter shots, so maybe I was headed here anyway.
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make install -not war
Any chance this is why the coffee for asthma remedy is supposedly effective? Perhaps inhaling the vapors for a bitter fluid are doing just what they described here?
Since it uses a completely different mechanism than current drugs, which relax the bronchial muscles directly, and works better as well, it would not only be safer for children and people in general but vastly cheaper.
I wonder if this has any bearing on how hot toddy's work?
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it would not only be safer for children and people in general but vastly cheaper.
Cheaper?
If it can't be patented and net drug companies billions of $$$; I doubt there will be a company to spend the millions for the research required to get "bitter-taste-based medication" through FDA approval.
Once they have the patent on the method of operation ("bitter tasting substance used to treat COPD, or bitter tasting substance used to treat asthma by stimulating lung taste receptors"), they will charge the standard markups all proprietary drugs get.
IOW -- it will probably be more expensive, or we'll probably never see a product based on that come to market that can be legally marketed as such. Just a bunch of studies that show the idea is promising.
I wonder what might be the reasoning behind this system evolving/remaining intact in humans. I can't really think of an exogenous substance that we inhale naturally that would activate such a response and confer an advantage to us. My best guess would be that the natural ligand for these receptors is something that is produced locally in the lungs in scenarios where bronchiodilation is desired (ie sympathetic stimulation). as someone else pointed out, many of the common neuroreceptors are alkaloids, and would probably activate these receptors. From the abstract, it sounds like these receptors are Gq (IP3 and calcium) receptors, which is interesting because the "classic" receptors that dilate the smooth muscle in the lungs are Gs receptors that stimulate increased cAMP. In smooth muscle, more calcium generally leads to stronger, not weaker, contraction. cAMP leads to relaxation, explaining why epinephrine and albuterol have their effects.
/med student
didn't have time to read the whole paper. exam on this stuff tomorrow though, wonder if I can use this on an essay question?
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun the frumious Bandersnatch.
It's not very often that researchers stumble onto something cheap and simple that could potentially save hundreds of millions of lives. I sure hope it pans out in practice.
No, but it's every other week that some researcher thinks he has.
The idea that occurred to me while reading the summary is maybe this partially explains the sense of well-being gained from being in a forest or some leafy natural environment.
As we know, most plants taste bitter - perhaps plants are also releasing bitter tasting gasses which help to open up our lungs.
Well, it's at least that often that a science journalist misrepresents a researcher's statements to make it sound like he thinks he has.
So if this is the future...where's my jet pack?
No, a naive man would believe the advertising by the Pharmacorps that they only have the best interests of the public at heart.
I would call your observation accurate and realistic. If they can they will profit from this as much as possible, if they can not they will do everything they can to bury this or ensure that only they can control the distribution channels, which they will then manipulate to either make it impossible to get or cost so much that no one can afford it. Then they will stop distributing it "because there is no demand".
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If the government 'controlled' the growth of cannabis, how come there hasn't been a reduction in availability?
Right, because the government is too incompetent to even get rid of fucking kudzu.
Hey, they've done a great job making it more expensive: as an illegal drug its street value is roughly five times what it would be if it were legalized. Gotta keep those cartels in business; without marijuana their annual profit would be about 20-25% lower than it is.
Support Mexican Cartel violence! Keep Marijuana Illegal! (Paid for by police chiefs far away from the border)
AM I being a naive old man watching people complain about companies who save millions of people's lives and improves the lives of millions of others evert day, and all they take in return is paper with patterns painted on it.
Seriously, I spend more on coffee than Singulair, but the later is by any definition, a miracle drug.
Grow up. If you don't like them making all that money off the hard working backs of all those poor people you pretend to know, BUY SHARES.
The abstract says that saccharin was tested. That's a very easy to get substance.
I claim first use of "Error No. 0B" - or "No. 0B error." It'll be the new ID 10T!
"...and all they take in return is paper with patterns painted on it."
And if this little characterization doesn't falls under the "dream abnormalities and hallucinations" heading, then I don't know what would.
Thought thinks itself.
Have you ever seen someone high on pot drive? they are worse than drunks. [...] How do you know someone won't go homicidal while on pot?
OK, OK, we get that you've never smoked.