Aetiological relationships of nasal mucus cyclic nucleotides in patients with taste and smell dysfunction
- Center for Molecular Nutrition and Sensory Disorders, the Taste and Smell Clinic, Washington, DC, USA
- Correspondence to Robert I Henkin, Center for Molecular Nutrition and Sensory Disorders, 5125 MacArthur Boulevard, NW, #20, Washington, DC 20016, USA; doc{at}tasteandsmell.com
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Contributors RIH initiated and planned the study. He is the guarantor of the paper and accepts full responsibility for the work. He defined the biochemical tests to evaluate each patient, clinically evaluated each patient in the study, oversaw all necessary measurements and performed the collection of all blood samples. He analysed the data obtained and planned and wrote the manuscript. IV processed all blood and saliva samples from each patient and performed all analyses of cAMP and cGMP using ELISA procedures. She also collected all saliva samples, collated all the data and assisted with data analysis.
- Accepted 13 January 2012
- Published Online First 22 February 2012
Abstract
Aims The authors previously demonstrated that nasal mucus cyclic adenosine 3′, 5′-monophosphate (cAMP) and cyclic 3′, 5′-guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) were lower in patients with smell and taste dysfunction than in normal individuals. To learn more about these differences this study related levels of nasal mucus cAMP and cGMP in patients with smell and taste dysfunction to the aetiology of their sensory loss and compared these results with those in normal individuals.
Methods Nasal mucus cAMP and cGMP levels in patients with smell loss (hyposmia) were calculated after assembling data into aetiological groups. Levels were compared with each clinical group, with the entire patient group and with normal individuals. Data were obtained from initial values among patients with hyposmia who participated in a clinical trial of treatment with the phosphodiesterase inhibitor theophylline.
Results Nasal mucus cyclic nucleotides in the entire patient group before treatment were below normal as previously demonstrated. Stratification by aetiology revealed differences not previously apparent. In some groups levels of cAMP and cGMP were below normal, some were similar to normal and some were above the normal mean.
Conclusions As nasal mucus cyclic nucleotides relate to the growth and development of olfactory epithelial cells these results indicate there are differential alterations in nasal mucus cAMP and cGMP related to the aetiology of smell and taste dysfunction.
- Biochemistry
- cell biology
- chemical pathology
- cyclic nucleotides
- enzymes
- molecular pathology
- nasal mucus
- sensory function
- smell
- taste
Footnotes
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Competing interests None.
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Patient consent Obtained.
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Ethics approval Studies were approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA.
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Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
