Your Gut Knows If Your S**t is Sweet or Not

Don't you believe that your body knows how your gut content tastes like? A team from the Department of Neuroscience at Mount Sinai School of Medicine has detected the same receptors for sweet taste in the tongue, T1R3 and the taste G protein gustducin, in the human intestines. These two sweet-sensing proteins are synthesized in specialized taste cells of the gut where they detect glucose within the gut content.

"We now know that the receptors that sense sugar and artificial sweeteners are not limited to the tongue. Our work is an important advance for the new field of gastrointestinal chemosensation - how the cells of the gut detect and respond to sugars and other nutrients," said lead author, Dr. Robert F. Margolskee, Professor of Neuroscience at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

"Cells of the gut taste glucose through the same mechanisms used by taste cells of the tongue. The gut taste cells regulate secretion of insulin and hormones that regulate appetite. Our work sheds new light on how we regulate sugar uptake from our diets and regulate blood sugar levels."

The new discoveries could lead to new approaches in tackling obesity and diabetes. "This work may explain why current artificial sweeteners may not help with weight loss, and may lead to the production of new non-caloric sweeteners to better control weight. Sensing glucose in the gastrointestinal tract is the first step in regulating blood sugar levels. Having discovered the identity of the gut's sweet receptors may open the way for new treatment options for obesity and diabetes.", said Margolskee.

Before this research, the gut's sugar sensors were unknown. The small intestine is the location where sugars from the food are absorbed into the body to get energy, fueling metabolism and homeostasis.

Too much glucose absorbed in the blood causes obesity, and T1R3 and gustducin, the main sweet taste receptors in the tongue, are also used by the gut to sense glucose. Any sugar (carbohydrate) from meals and beverages is finally broken down into glucose, to which the sweet sensors are sensitive.

When these sensors of the gut are activated, they boost secretion of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), a gut hormone essential in promoting insulin release and controlling the appetite.