Presentation Details
| The bitter taste of medicines and their modifiers in people of diverse ancestries Ha Nguyen1, Cailu Lin1, Katherine Bell1, Amy Huang1, Mackenzie Hannum1, Vicente Ramirez1, Carol Christensen1, Nancy E.Rawson1, Lauren Colquitt1, Paul Domanico2, Ivona Sasimovich1, Riley Herriman1, Paule Joseph3, Oghogho Braimah4, Danielle R.Reed1. 1Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA.2Clinton Health Access Initiative, New York, NY, USA.3National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism & National Institute of Nursing Research, Bethesda, MD, USA.4Countess of Chester Hospital, Chester, United Kingdom |
Abstract
The bitter taste of medicines is often a barrier to adhering to drug prescriptions. Medicines are more bitter for some people than others, and adding ingredients to reduce their bitterness is only partly effective. Moreover, people worldwide differ in their sense of taste, which may be partly due to genotype. To better understand how people from diverse ancestries differ in their perception of medicines and taste modifiers, 338 adult participants of diverse ancestries (European and recent immigrants to the US and Canada from Asia, South Asia, and Africa) rated the bitterness intensity of taste solutions on a 100-point generalized visual analog scale. The solutions were four medicines used to treat common infectious diseases - tenofovir alafenamide (TAF), moxifloxacin, praziquantel, and amodiaquine - and propylthiouracil (PROP), a medicine with a well-known relationship for its bitterness and a single genotype. Participants also rated four other solutions for bitterness: TAF mixed with sucralose (sweet, reduces bitterness) or 6-methylflavone (tasteless, reduces bitterness), sucralose alone, and sodium chloride alone. Participants provided a saliva sample for genotyping. Individual differences in drug bitterness were striking. Bitterness ratings differed by ancestry for two of the five drugs (amodiaquine and PROP) and for TAF mixed with sucralose (but not with the other bitter reducer). Genetic analysis showed that people with variants in one bitter receptor variant gene (TAS2R38) reported PROP was more bitter than did those with a different variant (p= 7.6e-19) and that people with either an RIMS2 or a THSD4 genotype found sucralose more bitter than did others (p=2.6e-8, p=7.9e-11, resp.). Our findings may help guide formulation of bitter medicines to meet the needs of those most sensitive to them.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author.