New hope for asthma therapy?

New hope for asthma patients? Scientists have discovered taste cells in the lungs that can detect bitter substances. This could open up new treatment options.

Baltimore University's scientists have discovered recipient cells in the bronchial smooth muscle that can sense bitter substances. Although these are not summarized to taste buds as in the mouth and do not pass their information to the brain, but they clearly respond to bitter substances. This opens up new possibilities in the treatment of asthma, as the research team around Stephen Liggett hopes.

Lung tissue can „taste“
To the now in the current issue of the trade magazine „ Nature Medicine“ published results, the researchers came rather by chance in a very general study of receptors of the bronchial smooth muscle. Thus, Stephen Liggett was astonished at the first results from the study of mice: „That we discovered functional taste receptors was so unexpected that at first we were quite skeptical ourselves“. Meanwhile, the team has detected corresponding lung tissue that is able to "taste", even in humans, the authors said „Nature Medicine“-Items. Unlike their siblings on the tongue, the taste cells of the lungs apparently do not report information to the brain, but affect the muscles, to control the breathing.

Bitterns relax the respiratory tract
However, the bitter taste does not seem to be a warning signal to the body, as with bitter taste in the mouth, but the bronchi relax and become dilated. Since many herbal poisons taste bitter, a corresponding taste in the mouth for herbivores is usually a sign of danger, the scientists said. So they were of the opinion that the reaction of the lung receptors must be a kind of protective mechanism that stimulates coughing and warns of foul air. The study of the function of the sensory cells in healthy people, mice with and without asthma and isolated receptor cells, however, have shown that bitter substances relax the airways clearly.
The bitter substances were more effective than any previously known drug.

New treatments for asthma
On the basis of the findings there is hope for new treatment options for asthmatics and other pulmonary diseases, according to the scientists. The asthma-induced contraction of the muscles, which makes breathing difficult and causes the typical wheezing and shortness of breath, is overcome by the inhalation of bitter substances. Due to a signal from the taste receptors, the smooth muscles of the lungs relax, the bronchi open and the asthmatic can breathe freely again. Generally, the researchers hope to be able to treat lung diseases better on the basis of the current study results. Because the bitter substances have opened the respiratory tract more thoroughly than any previously known for the treatment of asthma or smokers (chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases) known drugs, said Stephen Liggett.

The active ingredients quinine and chloroquine, which were originally proven in the treatment of malaria, have thus exerted three times more potent effects than previously available drugs for asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases. Even the saccharin used in sweeteners could be used in the future due to its bitter taste in the treatment of lung diseases. Based on the now in the trade magazine „Nature Medicine“ Published findings may replace or support the effects of previously used drugs, said scientists from the University of Maryland's School of Medicine, Baltimore. The inclusion of bitter foods, however, is not a solution - the bitter substances must be inhaled. „Based on our research, we believe that chemical modifications are best-suited to help with bitter compounds that are inhaled as an aerosol using an inhaler, "explained Stephen Liggett. (Fp, 25.10.2010)

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Image: Martin Gapa