Effects of 3-octen-2-one on human olfactory receptor responses to vanilla flavor

Most of the odors that humans perceive daily are complex odors. It is believed that the modulation, enhancement, and suppression of overall complex odors are caused by interactions between odor molecules. In this study, to understand the interaction between odor molecules at the level of human olfactory receptor responses, the effects of 3-octen-2-one, which has been shown to modulate vanilla flavors, were analyzed using a human olfactory receptor sensor that uses all human olfactory receptors (388 types) as sensing molecules. As a result, the response intensity of 1 common receptor (OR1D2) was synergistically enhanced in vanilla flavor with 3-octen-2-one compared with vanilla flavor, and the response of 1 receptor (OR5K1) to vanilla flavor was completely suppressed. These results strongly suggested that the response of human olfactory receptors to complex odors is enhanced or suppressed by relatively few other odor molecules.