A new screening method for identifying chemosensory receptors responding to agonist.

Humans sense taste and smell of various chemical substances through approximately 430 chemosensory receptors. The overall picture of ligand-chemosensory receptor interactions has been partially clarified because of numerous interactions. This study presents a new method that enables a rapid and simple screening of chemosensory receptors.

A Luminescence-Based Human TRPV1 Assay System for Quantifying Pungency in Spicy Foods.

The quantitation of pungency is difficult to achieve using sensory tests because of persistence, accumulation, and desensitization to the perception of pungency. Transient receptor vanilloid 1 (TRPV1), which is a chemosensory receptor, plays a pivotal role in the perception of many pungent compounds, suggesting that the activity of this receptor might be useful as an index for pungency evaluation. Although Ca-sensitive fluorescence dyes are commonly used for measuring human TRPV1 (hTRPV1) activity, their application is limited, as foods often contain fluorescent substances that interfere with the fluorescent signals.