Rapid Kinetic Interactions of Sugar and Sugar Alcohol with Sweet Taste Receptors on Live Cells Using Stopped-Flow Spectroscopy

The subjective measurement of the dynamic perception of sweetness is a problem in food science. Herein, the rapid interactions of sugars and sugar alcohols with sweet taste receptors on living cells on a millisecond timescale were studied via stopped-flow fluorescence spectroscopy. According to the rapid-kinetic parameters, sweeteners were divided into two groups. Sweeteners in group I disrupted the hydrogen bond network structure of water, and the apparent rate constant (kobs) was in the range of 0.45–0.6 s–1. Sweeteners in group II promoted the hydrogen bond formation of water, and the kobs was mostly in the range of 0.6–0.75 s–1. For most sweeteners, the kobs of cell responses was negatively correlated with the apparent specific volume of sweeteners. The differences in the cellular responses may be attributed to the disturbance in the water structure. Experimental results showed that the kinetic parameters of sweet cell responses reflected the dynamic perception of sweetness. Rapid kinetics, solution thermodynamic analysis, and water structure analysis enriched the physicochemical study of the sweetness mechanism and can be used to objectively evaluate the dynamic perception of sweetness.