Sweet and bitter tastants specific detection by the taste cell-based sensor

Area of Science:

• Biotechnology
• Sensory Science
• Cell Biology

Background:

• Cell-based sensors offer novel approaches for detecting chemical stimuli.
• Understanding taste perception involves specific receptor interactions with tastants.
• Human enteroendocrine cells express key receptors for taste detection.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the specific detection of sweet and bitter tastants using cell-based sensors.
• To evaluate the discriminatory capabilities of engineered human enteroendocrine cell lines.
• To establish a method for analyzing tastant species and concentrations.

Main Methods:

• Utilized human enteroendocrine NCI-H716 cells (sweet taste) and STC-1 cells (bitter taste) as sensing devices.
• Employed HEK-293 cells as a negative control lacking taste receptor expression.
• Applied electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and bistable stochastic resonance for signal processing.

Main Results:

• NCI-H716 cell-based sensors demonstrated selective response to sweeteners and sweet mixtures.
• STC-1 cell-based sensors showed selective response to bitter tastants and bitter mixtures.
• Signal-to-noise ratio parameters effectively determined tastant species and concentrations, unlike the negative control.

Conclusions:

• Developed selective and sensitive cell-based taste sensors using human enteroendocrine cells.
• Demonstrated the feasibility of using these sensors for gustatory mechanism research.
• Highlighted the potential for easy preparation and operation of these taste sensors.