Effect of the umami peptides on the ligand binding and function of rat mGlu4a receptor might implicate this receptor in the monosodium glutamate taste transduction
K. Monastyrskaia et al., Effect of the umami peptides on the ligand binding and function of rat mGlu4a receptor might implicate this receptor in the monosodium glutamate taste transduction, BR J PHARM, 128(5), 1999, pp. 1027-1034
1 The effect of several metabotropic ligands and di- or tripeptides were te
sted on the binding of [H-3]-L(+)-2-amino-4-phosphonobutyric acid ([H-3]-L-
AP4) on rat mGlu(4) receptor. For selected compounds, the functional activi
ty was determined on this receptor using the guanosine-5'[gamma-S-35]-thiot
riphosphate [gamma-S-35]-GTP binding assay.
2 Using the scintillation proximity assay, [H-3]-L-AP4 saturation analysis
gave binding parameters K-D and B-max values of 150 nM and 9.3 pmoles mg(-1
) protein, respectively. The specific binding was inhibited concentration-d
ependently by several mGlu receptor ligands, and their rank order of affini
ty was established.
3 Several peptides inhibited the [H-3]-L-AP4 binding with the following ran
k order of potency: glutamate-glutamate > glutamate-glutamate-leucine = asp
artate - glutamate, > > glutamate - glutamate-aspartate > lactoyl-glutamate
> > aspartate-aspartate. Aspartate-phenylalanine-methyl eater (aspartame)
was inactive up to 1 mM and guanosine-5'-monophosphate and inosine-5'-monop
hosphate were inactive up to 100 mu M.
4 The [gamma-S-35]-GTP binding functional assay was used to determine the a
gonist activities of the different compounds. For the rat mGlu(4) agonists,
L-AP4 and L-glutamate, the correlation between their occupancy and activat
ion of the receptor was close to one. The peptides, Glu-Glu, Asp-Glu and Gl
u-Glu-Asp failed to stimulate the [gamma-S-35]-GTP binding at receptor occu
pancy greater than 80% and Glu-Glu-Leu appeared to be a weak partial agonis
t. These peptides did not elicit a clear dose-dependent umami perception. H
owever, Glu-lac showed a good correlation between its potency to stimulate
the [gamma-S-35]-GTP binding and its affinity for displacement of [H-3]-L-A
P4 binding. These data are in agreement with the peptide taste assessment i
n human subjects, which showed that the acid derivatives of glutamate had c
haracteristics similar to umami.