In a discovery that could transform asthma treatment US researchers have found our lungs carry receptors for bitter tastes.
The receptors are the same as those that cluster together as taste-buds on our tongue Deepak Deshpande from the University of Maryland and colleagues reported in the journal Nature Medicine.
In experiments using human and mouse lung tissue and mice with asthma they found stimulating these receptors in the lungs with bitter substances decreased airway obstruction.
Airway obstruction is a problem in diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
“They all opened the airway more extensively than any known drug that we have for treatment of asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease” says co-author Stephen Liggett.
There are thousands of non-toxic bitter compounds that are known to activate these receptors the scientists say.
In their experiments the researchers tested bitter compounds such as quinine and chloroquine that have been used to treat malaria.
But the researchers say that simply eating bitter foods would not help the treatment of asthma.
“Based on our research we think that the best drugs would be chemical modifications of bitter compounds which would be aerosolized and then inhaled into the lungs with an inhaler” Liggett said.