Beyond the Tongue: Gut Taste Receptors as New Targets for Satiety

Prof Inge Depoortere will present on the strategic topic - Beyond the Tongue: Gut Taste Receptors as New Targets for Satiety at Polyphenols Applications 2026 which will be held in Malaga, Spain on October 8-9.

The gut, which is the key interface between food and the human body, “tastes” what we eat in much the same way as the lingual system. Indeed, taste receptors are expressed not only in the oral cavity but also on intestinal epithelial cells, where they function as chemosensors that detect nutrients as well as dietary phytochemicals, including bitter-tasting polyphenols. This chemosensory system transmits this information to effector cells to elicit appropriate biological processes. During this talk, I will discuss how phenolic acids, particularly gallic acid, activate bitter taste receptors (TAS2R) in the gut of patients with obesity to affect the release of appetite regulating gut hormones as well as a stress responsive cytokine involved in satiety signalling. Further, I will also present findings on the effect of gallic acid on intestinal stem cells, focusing on its role in stem cell lineage commitment in organoids from patients with obesity and the resulting changes in epithelial composition and function. Together, these studies explore the potential of targeting extra-oral bitter receptors in the gut with phenolic acids as a relevant strategy to modulate gut function and energy homeostasis.