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).'"

Comments

That explains my preference

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

For Dunhill over Pariament and Davidoff over Benson & Hedges!

Neurotransmitters Are Bitter

[Doc Ruby]

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.

Re:Neurotransmitters Are Bitter

[antifoidulus]

The answer is obvious, the fish neuroeceptors bonded with those in your own brain and you are now part fish. Do you find yourself flopping about when you are removed from water? Do you find yourself capable of eating until your stomach literally explodes because you have no receptors that tell you that you're full? Do you find yourself inexplicably drawn to plastic castles? If so you are a fishman, you best be hanging around the basement of draculas castle attacking anyone with a whip and sen ding him flying back into the water.

Re:Neurotransmitters Are Bitter

[Doc Ruby]

The neurotransmitters were ones like GABA and acetylcholine - both humans and fish produce and use them in our nerves.

In other words, I was already part fish. Thanks for explaining my longtime attraction to plastic castles.

Coffee

[xaoslaad]

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?

Re:Maybe some help for Asthmatics

[PinkyGigglebrain]

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?

_

Re:Maybe some help for Asthmatics

[mysidia]

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.

Re:You don't see that every day

[interkin3tic]

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.

Bitter scents from the natural environemnt

[solferino]

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.

Re:You don't see that every day

[Interoperable]

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.

Re:Maybe some help for Asthmatics

[Maury Markowitz]

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.

Re:Maybe some help for Asthmatics

[Stile 65]

The abstract says that saccharin was tested. That's a very easy to get substance.

Re:Cynical Me

[Civil_Disobedient]

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.