The preference for sugar over sweetener depends on a gut sensor cell.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Buchanan KL
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8825280 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:The taste of sugar is one of the most basic sensory percepts for humans and other animals. Animals can develop a strong preference for sugar even if they lack sweet taste receptors, indicating a mechanism independent of taste1-3. Here we examined the neural basis for sugar preference and demonstrate that a population of neurons in the vagal ganglia and brainstem are activated via the gut-brain axis to create preference for sugar. These neurons are stimulated in response to sugar but not artificial sweeteners, and are activated by direct delivery of sugar to the gut. Using functional imaging we monitored activity of the gut-brain axis, and identified the vagal neurons activated by intestinal delivery of glucose. Next, we engineered mice in which synaptic activity in this gut-to-brain circuit was genetically silenced, and prevented the development of behavioural preference for sugar. Moreover, we show that co-opting this circuit by chemogenetic activation can create preferences to otherwise less-preferred stimuli. Together, these findings reveal a gut-to-brain post-ingestive sugar-sensing pathway critical for the development of sugar preference. In addition, they explain the neural basis for differences in the behavioural effects of sweeteners versus sugar, and uncover an essential circuit underlying the highly appetitive effects of sugar.
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Project description:Previous studies have shown large differences in taste responses to several sweeteners between mice of the C57BL/6ByJ (B6) and 129P3/J (129) inbred strains. The goal of this study was to compare behavioral responses of B6 and 129 mice to a wider variety of sweeteners. Seventeen sweeteners were tested using two-bottle preference tests with water. Three main patterns of strain differences were evident. First, sucrose, maltose, saccharin, acesulfame-K, sucralose and SC-45647 were preferred by both strains, but the B6 mice had lower preference thresholds and higher solution intakes. Second, the amino acids D-phenylalanine, D-tryptophan, L-proline and glycine were highly preferred by B6 mice, but not by 129 mice. Third, glycyrrhizic acid, neohesperidin dihydrochalcone, thaumatin and cyclamate did not evoke strong preferences in either strain. Aspartame was neutral to all 129 and some B6 mice, but other B6 mice strongly preferred it. Thus, compared with the 129 mice the B6 mice had higher preferences for sugars, sweet tasting amino acids and several but not all non-caloric sweeteners. Glycyrrhizic acid, neohesperidin, thaumatin and cyclamate are not palatable to B6 or 129 mice.
| S-EPMC3718299 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Data are lacking on whether non-nutritive sweeteners (NNS) can be used as a strategy to support decreases in sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption. The purpose of this secondary analysis of a 6-month SSB-reduction intervention was to explore changes in NNS consumption patterns in Talking Health participants within the SIPsmartER (n = 101) intervention. Additionally, participant characteristics were compared for three SSB-NNS change groups (decrease SSB/increase NNS; decrease SSB/no increase in NNS; increase/no change in SSB/regardless of NNS). There was a significant increase in aspartame and total NNS intake for participants (mean daily mg increases of 37.2 ± 13.9 and 63.7 ± 18.5, respectively). With the exception of sex, no differences in participant characteristics were found between the three SSB-NNS change groups. Furthermore, no significant changes in weight or body mass index (BMI) were demonstrated between SSB-NNS change groups over time. Diet soda was the most commonly consumed source of NNS; however, other dietary sources of NNS also contributed to intake. At 6 months, intake of sucralose and saccharin were primarily from dietary sources other than diet sodas (94% and 100%, respectively). These findings suggest that NNS may be a feasible strategy to help reduce SSB consumption. This study supports the need to consistently quantify and identify NNS intake, beyond using diet soda intake as a proxy for NNS intake and grouping all NNS types into one variable, to more accurately address the potential health effects of NNS.
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Project description:Purpose: The purpose of this study was to understand caregivers' knowledge about sugar, intended and actual control, and barriers in controlling sugar consumptions of their children. Methods: A 17-item preliminary knowledge questionnaire on sugar was developed. Fifty- five caregivers of pediatric dental patients completed the survey regarding their knowledge about sugar, intention to control, actual control, and barriers in controlling children's sugar consumptions. The same survey was also used with 62 fourth-year dental students to assess the construct validity of the questionnaire. Fisher's exact, Wilcoxon rank-sum test, and generalized linear model were used in data analyses. Results: Compared to caregivers, dental students had better knowledge about sugar (P<0.001). Caregivers in the higher sugar knowledge group had greater intention to control their child's fruit juice consumption (P=0.037) and greater actual control over their child's sweet snacks (P=0.046), soft drinks (P=0.034), and fruit juice consumption (P=0.003). Other family members allowing sugar snacks/drinks was considered the top barrier in controlling children's sugar consumption (reported by 44 percent of caregivers). Conclusion: Knowledge about sugar was associated with caregivers' intended and actual control over their child's sugar consumption, indicating an education need for caregivers that focuses on the role of sugar in the development of caries. (Pediatr Dent 2019;41(3):191-9) Received November 30, 2018 | Last Revision April 9, 2019 | Accepted April 11, 2019.
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Project description:Although artificial sweeteners are widely used in food industry, their effects on human health remain a controversy. It is known that the gut microbiota plays a key role in human metabolism and recent studies indicated that some artificial sweeteners such as saccharin could perturb gut microbiome and further affect host health, such as inducing glucose intolerance. Neotame is a relatively new low-caloric and high-intensity artificial sweetener, approved by FDA in 2002. However, the specific effects of neotame on gut bacteria are still unknown. In this study, we combined high-throughput sequencing and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) metabolomics to investigate the effects of neotame on the gut microbiome and fecal metabolite profiles of CD-1 mice. We found that a four-week neotame consumption reduced the alpha-diversity and altered the beta-diversity of the gut microbiome. Firmicutes was largely decreased while Bacteroidetes was significantly increased. The Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States (PICRUSt) analysis also indicated that the control mice and neotame-treated mice have different metabolic patterns and some key genes such as butyrate synthetic genes were decreased. Moreover, neotame consumption also changed the fecal metabolite profiles. Dramatically, the concentrations of multiple fatty acids, lipids as well as cholesterol in the feces of neotame-treated mice were consistently higher than controls. Other metabolites, such as malic acid and glyceric acid, however, were largely decreased. In conclusion, our study first explored the specific effects of neotame on mouse gut microbiota and the results may improve our understanding of the interaction between gut microbiome and neotame and how this interaction could influence the normal metabolism of host bodies.
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Project description:Low-calorie sweetener (LCS) consumption in children has increased dramatically due to its widespread presence in the food environment and efforts to mitigate obesity through sugar replacement. However, mechanistic studies on the long-term impact of early-life LCS consumption on cognitive function and physiological processes are lacking. Here, we developed a rodent model to evaluate the effects of daily LCS consumption (acesulfame potassium, saccharin, or stevia) during adolescence on adult metabolic, behavioral, gut microbiome, and brain transcriptomic outcomes. Results reveal that habitual early-life LCS consumption impacts normal postoral glucose handling and impairs hippocampal-dependent memory in the absence of weight gain. Furthermore, adolescent LCS consumption yielded long-term reductions in lingual sweet taste receptor expression and brought about alterations in sugar-motivated appetitive and consummatory responses. While early-life LCS consumption did not produce robust changes in the gut microbiome, brain region-specific RNA-Seq analyses reveal LCS-induced changes in collagen- and synaptic signaling-related gene pathways in the hippocampus and nucleus accumbens, respectively, in a sex-dependent manner. Collectively, these results reveal that habitual early-life LCS consumption has long-lasting implications for glucoregulation, sugar-motivated behavior, and hippocampal-dependent memory in rats, which may be based in part on changes in nutrient transporter, sweet taste receptor, and central gene pathway expression.
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Project description:Abstract: Non-caloric artificial sweeteners (NASs) provide sweet tastes to food without adding calories or glucose. NASs can be used as alternative sweeteners for controlling blood glucose levels and weight gain. Although the consumption of NASs has increased over the past decade in Japan and other countries, whether these sweeteners affect the composition of the gut microbiome is unclear. In the present study, we examined the effects of sucralose or acesulfame-K ingestion (at most the maximum acceptable daily intake (ADI) levels, 15 mg/kg body weight) on the gut microbiome in mice. Consumption of sucralose, but not acesulfame-K, for 8 weeks reduced the relative amount of Clostridiumcluster XIVa in feces. Meanwhile, sucralose and acesulfame-K did not increase food intake, body weight gain or liver weight, or fat in the epididymis or cecum. Only sucralose intake increased the concentration of hepatic cholesterol and cholic acid. Moreover, the relative concentration of butyrate and the ratio of secondary/primary bile acids in luminal metabolites increased with sucralose consumption in a dose-dependent manner. These results suggest that daily intake of maximum ADI levels of sucralose, but not acesulfame-K, affected the relative amount of the Clostridium cluster XIVa in fecal microbiome and cholesterol bile acid metabolism in mice.
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Project description:The multi-subunit translation initiation factor eIF2B is a control node for protein synthesis. eIF2B activity is canonically modulated through stress-responsive phosphorylation of its substrate eIF2. The eIF2B regulatory subcomplex is evolutionarily related to sugar-metabolizing enzymes, but the biological relevance of this relationship was unknown. To identify natural ligands that might regulate eIF2B, we conduct unbiased binding- and activity-based screens followed by structural studies. We find that sugar phosphates occupy the ancestral catalytic site in the eIF2Bα subunit, promote eIF2B holoenzyme formation and enhance enzymatic activity towards eIF2. A mutant in the eIF2Bα ligand pocket that causes Vanishing White Matter disease fails to engage and is not stimulated by sugar phosphates. These data underscore the importance of allosteric metabolite modulation for proper eIF2B function. We propose that eIF2B evolved to couple nutrient status via sugar phosphate sensing with the rate of protein synthesis, one of the most energetically costly cellular processes.
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Project description:Low-calorie sweetener (LCS) consumption in children has increased dramatically due to widespread presence in the food environment and efforts to mitigate obesity through sugar replacement. However, mechanistic studies on the long-term impact of early-life LCS consumption on cognitive function and physiological processes are lacking. Here, we developed a rodent model to evaluate the effects of daily LCS consumption (acesulfame potassium, saccharin, or stevia) during adolescence on adult metabolic, behavioral, gut microbiome, and brain transcriptomic outcomes. Results reveal that habitual early-life LCS consumption impacts normal post-oral glucose handling and impairs hippocampal-dependent memory in the absence of weight gain. Furthermore, adolescent LCS consumption yielded long-term reductions in lingual sweet taste receptor expression and alterations in sugar-motivated appetitive and consummatory responses. While early life LCS consumption did not produce robust changes in the gut microbiome, brain region-specific RNA sequencing analyses reveal LCS-induced changes in collagen- and synaptic signaling-related gene pathways in the hippocampus and nucleus accumbens, respectively, in a sex-dependent manner. Collectively, these results reveal that habitual early-life LCS consumption has long lasting implications for glucoregulation, sugar-motivated behavior, and hippocampal-dependent memory in rats, which may be based in part on changes in nutrient transporter, sweet taste receptor, and central gene pathway expression.
2022-09-06 | GSE212589 | GEO
Project description:A series of DNA primers containing nucleotides with various sugar pucker conformations at the 3'-terminus were chemically synthesized by solid-phase synthesis. The ability of wild-type (WT) HIV-1 reverse transcriptase (RT) and AZT-resistant (AZTr) RT to excise the 3'-terminal nucleotide was assessed. Nucleosides with a preference for the North conformation were more refractory to excision by both WT-RT and AZTr-RT. We found that DNA primers that contain North puckered-nucleotides at the 3'-terminus can also affect the translocation status of the RT/template/primer complex, which provides an underlying mechanism to avoid being excised. Together, these results point to a correlation between the sugar conformation of the 3'-terminal nucleotide, the precise position of HIV-1 RT on its nucleic acid substrate, and, in turn, its catalytic function. Nucleotide sugar conformation is therefore an important parameter in defining the susceptibility to RT-catalyzed phosphorolytic excision.
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