What Triggers the Insatiable Craving for Sweets VIDEO

For the first time, the 3D structure of the receptor on our tongue that allows us to taste sweet things, the key to the insatiable desire for chocolate, cakes and sweets, has been mapped : until now, in fact, its chemical formula was known but not its exact shape , a bit like knowing the recipe for a cake but not its final appearance. The result, published in the journal Cell, is due to the group of researchers led by the Zuckerman Institute of Columbia University in the United States, and it is a fundamental step forward that opens up the possibility of regulating the desire for sugar , for example through new sweeteners.

It took researchers led by Charles Zuker about 3 years to complete the feat, mainly because the sweet taste receptor proved extremely difficult to obtain in the laboratory . Once they had overcome this obstacle, they used cryo-electron microscopy to analyze the receptor : this technique shoots electron beams at frozen molecules to capture snapshots from different angles, so as to finally reconstruct the entire three-dimensional structure in an extremely detailed way.

In particular, the authors of the study were able to reveal the structure of the exact point where sweet foods bind to the receptor , triggering the reactions that drive our desire for sweets . “Defining the binding site of this receptor with extreme precision is absolutely fundamental to understanding its function,” says Anthony Fitzpatrick, co-author of the study. “By knowing its exact shape, we can understand why sweeteners attach to it,” adds Fitzpatrick, “and how to create or find better molecules that activate the receptor or regulate its function.”