Some children will like the taste of a given medicine and complete the full course of treatment, whereas others will strongly reject its taste, suffer taste-modulated side effects, or both. These distinctive variations support a precision medicine approach based on understanding variation in the genome that makes each of us a unique patient. The impact will be significant?when a child refuses to take a single dose, let alone a full course, this thwarts the benefits of even the most powerful drugs. To prioritize taste assessment in clinical care and to address the need for ?palatability? taste assessments, this renewal application has three aims.
Specific Aim 1 will systematically measure personal variation of trained and genotyped adult sensory panelists in the taste of a variety of liquid formulations of pediatric medicines (steroids, anti-inflammatories, immune modulators, and antibiotics, including clindamycin) and a variety of excipients. This vigorous taste-based assessment will allow us to measure for the first time variations in taste responses to drugs and to determine whether individual taste responses to one drug predict responses to other medicines in the same class or with similar excipients, and how these taste responses relate to genetic variations.
Specific Aim 2 will systematically measure initial taste reactions to the first dose of an antibiotic (clindamycin) by genotyped pediatric patients who receive a diagnosis of skin and soft tissue infection in the emergency room. All patients will be followed to determine if they complete the 1-week medication regimen and/or experience side effects. Because medication-specific side effects have patient-specific variability, we will determine whether the child?s initial taste responses, genotype, or both predict subsequent side effects and medication adherence.
Specific Aim 3, combining the outcomes of Specific Aims 1 and 2, will determine the transferability of results of a genotyped adult panel to pediatric responses: whether the panel predicts variation in the initial taste of clindamycin by pediatric patients and identifies which patients (e.g., those of a particular genotype) may have problems with the taste. Such data will help establish adult taste panels to evaluate suitability of pediatric formulations and the feasibility of rapid genotyping in helping select pediatric formulations and regimens. To accomplish our goals, we have assembled a multi-institutional team that brings unique and necessary expertise in human perception, genetics, biomedical informatics, and/or pediatric medicine to study personalized perception of pediatric medicines, which we suspect is the underappreciated key to understanding medication adherence and clinical outcomes and which addresses gaps in knowledge identified as research and global health priorities. The data generated will provide the tools and evidence base for future clinical trials to assess taste of other drugs and therapeutics. Results from such clinical trials will lay the foundation to use the patient?s genomic information, initial taste response, or both to tailor medicines and therapies to maximize clinical outcomes and minimize side effects.

Public Health Relevance

Some but not all children will refuse to take medicine because of its taste, which can lead to substantial worsening of disease, antibiotic resistance, increased health care costs, and even death. We propose to systematically assess individual variation in the taste of pediatric liquid formulations by (a) a genotyped adult panel and (b) genotyped pediatric patients in the emergency room, to determine whether (1) genetic variation underlies differences in taste ratings of an antibiotic among adult panelists and patients; (2) the adult panel can predict variation in taste responses among pediatric patients, and (3) initial taste responses, genetics, or both predict likelihood of side effects and medication nonadherence. These data will provide methodological tools to assess variation of taste of other pediatric drugs and therapeutics, laying the foundation to use personalized genomic information, initial taste response, or both to tailor medicines and therapies to maximize clinical outcomes and minimize side effects.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01DC011287-08
Application #
9915880
Study Section
Somatosensory and Chemosensory Systems Study Section (SCS)
Program Officer
Sullivan, Susan L
Project Start
2011-01-01
Project End
2023-04-30
Budget Start
2020-05-01
Budget End
2021-04-30
Support Year
8
Fiscal Year
2020
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Monell Chemical Senses Center
Department
Type
DUNS #
088812565
City
Philadelphia
State
PA
Country
United States
Zip Code
19104
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Lipchock, Sarah V; Spielman, Andrew I; Mennella, Julie A et al. (2017) Caffeine Bitterness is Related to Daily Caffeine Intake and Bitter Receptor mRNA Abundance in Human Taste Tissue. Perception 46:245-256
Mennella, Julie A; Mathew, Phoebe S; Lowenthal, Elizabeth D (2017) Use of Adult Sensory Panel to Study Individual Differences in the Palatability of a Pediatric HIV Treatment Drug. Clin Ther 39:2038-2048
Mennella, Julie A; Bobowski, Nuala K (2016) Psychophysical Tracking Method to Measure Taste Preferences in Children and Adults. J Vis Exp :
Bobowski, Nuala; Reed, Danielle R; Mennella, Julie A (2016) Variation in the TAS2R31 bitter taste receptor gene relates to liking for the nonnutritive sweetener Acesulfame-K among children and adults. Sci Rep 6:39135
Mennella, Julie A; Bobowski, Nuala K; Reed, Danielle R (2016) The development of sweet taste: From biology to hedonics. Rev Endocr Metab Disord 17:171-8
Joseph, Paule Valery; Reed, Danielle R; Mennella, Julie A (2016) Individual Differences Among Children in Sucrose Detection Thresholds: Relationship With Age, Gender, and Bitter Taste Genotype. Nurs Res 65:3-12
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Bobowski, Nuala K; Mennella, Julie A (2015) Disruption in the Relationship between Blood Pressure and Salty Taste Thresholds among Overweight and Obese Children. J Acad Nutr Diet 115:1272-82
Mennella, Julie A; Reed, Danielle R; Mathew, Phoebe S et al. (2015) ""A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down"": bitter masking by sucrose among children and adults. Chem Senses 40:17-25

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