Presentation Details
Modulation of Pharmaceutical Taste Aversiveness in Drosophila melanogaster

Paul Breslin1, 2, Natasha Rivers2, Carter Green3.

1Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA.2Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA.3Takasago International Corporation (U.S.A.), Rockleigh, NJ, USA

Abstract


Many pharmaceuticals are bitter tasting when presented in non-capsule or pill formulations (e.g. liquid formulations, rapid dissolves, chewables). We hypothesized that Drosophila are an effective model system for testing the aversive nature of pharmaceuticals that humans find bitter-tasting and for suppressing this aversiveness. Method: Food deprived wildtype Canton-S (CS) flies were tested for their proboscis extension response to bitter compounds mixed in sucrose. Individual flies were tested a minimum of three times each. A response was considered positive when the fly extended its proboscis at least 3 times; if proboscis extension occurred once or twice the fly was tested 5 times. Water was offered to satiation before testing and in between each stimulus test. Bitter stimuli included: quinine-HCl, caffeine, denatonium, MgSO4, diphenhydramine-HCl, dextromethorphan, and caffeine. Results: Flies rejected exemplar taste stimuli that humans find bitter: quinine, denatonium, and MgSO4. Flies were also sensitive to the three aversive pharmaceutical agents tested in this study: diphenhydramine-HCl (Diph), dextromethorphan (Dex), caffeine (Caff). As with humans, the addition of sugar rendered the pharmaceuticals less aversive for flies. We titrated aversiveness precisely by controlling the level of sugar with the pharmaceutical. We further demonstrated that salt additives, monosodium glutamate, NaCl, adenosine monophosphate sodium salt, and KCl, ameliorated the aversiveness of Diph, Dex, and Caff for the flies. The three sodium salts were highly effective as aversiveness ameliorating agents. Conclusion: We believe this model system is relatively simple way to predict the orosensory aversiveness of pharmaceuticals and to test bitterness ameliorating additives that will be proven effective in humans.

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