Matsuyama Minami, Terada Yuko, Yamazaki-Ito Toyomi, Ito Keisuke
Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences, Graduate School of Integrated Pharmaceutical and Nutritional Sciences, University of Shizuoka, 52-1 Yada, Suruga-ku, Shizuoka 422-8526, Japan.
Foods. 2021 Jan 13;10(1):151. doi: 10.3390/foods10010151.
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. This study aims to design a new pungency evaluation system using hTRPV1. Instead of employing a fluorescent probe as the Ca indicator, this assay system uses the luminescent protein aequorin. The luminescence assay successfully evaluated the hTRPV1 activity in foods without purification, even for those containing fluorescent substances. The hTRPV1 activity in food samples correlated strongly with the pungency intensity obtained by the human sensory test. This luminescence-based hTRPV1 assay system will be a powerful tool for objectively quantifying the pungency of spicy foods in both laboratory and industrial settings.
由于辣味的持续性、累积性以及对辣味感知的脱敏作用，使用感官测试很难实现对辣味的定量分析。瞬时受体香草酸亚型1（TRPV1）是一种化学感应受体，在许多辛辣化合物的感知中起关键作用，这表明该受体的活性可能作为辣味评估的一个指标。尽管钙敏感荧光染料通常用于测量人TRPV1（hTRPV1）的活性，但其应用受到限制，因为食物中常常含有会干扰荧光信号的荧光物质。本研究旨在设计一种使用hTRPV1的新型辣味评估系统。该检测系统不使用荧光探针作为钙指示剂，而是使用发光蛋白水母发光蛋白。发光检测成功地评估了食物中的hTRPV1活性，无需进行纯化，即使是对于含有荧光物质的食物也是如此。食物样品中的hTRPV1活性与通过人体感官测试获得的辣味强度密切相关。这种基于发光的hTRPV1检测系统将成为在实验室和工业环境中客观定量辛辣食物辣味的有力工具。
