Demystifying Bitter Taste Receptor Relaxation of Airway Smooth Muscle

Tang discusses the study by Woo et al which provide evidence to suggest that agonist activation of TAS2R14 (the most abundant taste receptors (TAS2Rs) in human airway smooth muscle (HASM)) affects the polarity protein Par3, which inhibits the LIMK-cofilin pathway and induces F-actin severing and HASM relaxation. They show that treatment with the TAS2R14 agonists DPD and AA did not affect myosin light chain phosphorylation induced by contractile stimuli. In contrast, treatment with DPD and AA induced dephosphorylation of LIMK and cofilin and decreased the F-actin/G-actin ratio.