Taste receptors’ profiling in glioblastoma

Glioblastoma is the most common and aggressive form of primary brain cancer. Despite significant progress in the development of promising therapeutic agents, cancer-targeting therapies often fail to achieve effective concentrations in the brain, limiting their therapeutic efficacy. As such, a deeper understanding of how glioblastoma tumours interact with their microenvironment and assess the chemical composition therein can reveal novel therapeutic strategies. Recent studies have highlighted the critical role of taste receptors, particularly bitter taste receptors (TAS2Rs) and their ligands in cancer progression and metastasis. Activation of TAS2Rs by both natural and synthetic compounds has been associated with drug resistance, apoptosis, and the proliferation of malignant tumours. The sweet taste receptor TAS1R2/TAS1R3, or the umami receptor TAS1R1/TAS1R3, as recognised sensors of glucose levels and aminoacids, respectively, are also of interest in the context of cancer metabolism. In this study, we investigated the expression and function of TAS2Rs, TAS1R2/TAS1R3 and TAS1R1/TAS1R3 and all the taste signalling pathway machinery in glioblastoma. Our findings demonstrate that TAS1R2/TAS1R3, TAS1R1/TAS1R3, and 20 out of the 26 human TAS2Rs are present and active in glioblastoma cells, with expression differences in glioblastoma cells and human tumours. The expression of such a large number of members of this family of receptors, highlight the significance of the taste transduction pathway in this form of brain cancer, where these receptors might be essential for the crosstalk between glioblastoma and its microenvironment.