Maarten Gees, Yeranddy A Alpizar, Brett Boonen, Alicia Sanchez, Wouter Everaerts, Andrei Segal, Fenqin Xue, Annelies Janssens, Grzegorz Owsianik, Bernd Nilius, Thomas Voets, Karel Talavera
Allyl isothiocyanate (AITC; aka, mustard oil) is a powerful irritant produced by Brassica plants as a defensive trait against herbivores and confers pungency to mustard and wasabi. AITC is widely used experimentally as an inducer of acute pain and neurogenic inflammation, which are largely mediated by the activation of nociceptive cation channels transient receptor potential ankyrin 1 and transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1). Although it is generally accepted that electrophilic agents activate these channels through covalent modification of cytosolic cysteine residues, the mechanism underlying TRPV1 activation by AITC remains unknown...
September 2013: Molecular Pharmacology