Probing the effect of aroma compounds on the hydrodynamic properties of mucin glycoproteins

Dinu, Vlad; MacCalman, Thomas; Yang, Ni; Adams, Gary G.; Yakubov, Gleb E.; Harding, Stephen E.; Fisk, Ian D.

Abstract

© 2020, The Author(s). Aroma compounds are diverse low molecular weight organic molecules responsible for the flavour of food, medicines or cosmetics. Natural and artificial aroma compounds are manufactured and used by the industry to enhance the flavour and fragrance of products. While the low concentrations of aroma compounds present in food may leave no effect on the structural integrity of the mucosa, the effect of concentrated aroma volatiles is not well understood. At high concentrations, like those found in some flavoured products such as e-cigarettes, some aroma compounds are suggested to elicit a certain degree of change in the mucin glycoprotein network, depending on their functional group. These effects are particularly associated with carbonyl compounds such as aldehydes and ketones, but also phenols which may interact with mucin and other glycoproteins through other interaction mechanisms. This study demonstrates the formation of such interactions in vitro through the use of molecular hydrodynamics. Sedimentation velocity studies reveal that the strength of the carbonyl compound interaction is influenced by compound hydrophobicity, in which the more reactive short chain compounds show the largest increase in mucin-aroma sedimentation coefficients. By contrast, the presence of groups that increases the steric hindrance of the carbonyl group, such as ketones, produced a milder effect. The interaction effects were further demonstrated for hexanal using size exclusion chromatography light scattering (SEC-MALS) and intrinsic viscosity. In addition, phenolic aroma compounds were identified to reduce the sedimentation coefficient of mucin, which is consistent with interactions in the non-glycosylated mucin region.

Citation

Dinu, V., MacCalman, T., Yang, N., Adams, G. G., Yakubov, G. E., Harding, S. E., & Fisk, I. D. (2020). Probing the effect of aroma compounds on the hydrodynamic properties of mucin glycoproteins. European Biophysics Journal, 49(8), 799-808. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00249-020-01475-4

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 23, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Nov 13, 2020
• Publication Date: 2020-12
• Deposit Date: Mar 29, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 30, 2021
• Journal: European Biophysics Journal
• Print ISSN: 0175-7571
• Electronic ISSN: 1432-1017
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 49
• Issue: 8
• Pages: 799-808
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00249-020-01475-4
• Keywords: Aroma, Mucin, Interactions, Aldehydes, Phenols, Hydrodynamics
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5056314
• Publisher URL: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00249-020-01475-4
• Additional Information: Received: 17 August 2020; Revised: 12 October 2020; Accepted: 23 October 2020; First Online: 13 November 2020; : ; : The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.