Abstracts

Rationale: The ability to taste phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) has been associated with medical and neurological disorders. This substance is widely used for genetic and anthropological studies. How individuals are genetically predisposed to respond or not respond to bitter taste of certain foods may have broad implications for nutritional status. The trait has been investigated over many years as a marker of genetic predisposition for a host of illnesses ranging from peptic ulcer to epilepsy(1). We have studied the role of genetic taste marker PTC and its potential influences on food preferences, dietary habits, and interaction between genetic and environmental factors in the development of epilepsy. Methods: PTC tasting ability was studied by Harris and Kalmus method on 400 epilepsy patients: 200 idiopathic patients with epilepsy (IPE) and 200 symptomatic epilepsy patients (SPE) and 100 healthy individual is serving as controls from northwest India. Results: The means and standard deviations (SD)of the threshold for IPE, SPE and controls were: 5.36 + 3.18, 5.39 + 3.45, and 6.62 + 3.03. The number of non-tasters among IPE (35.5%) and SPE (32.5%) was significantly higher than controls (20%). The relative incidence of non-tasters of idiopathic and symptomatic epilepsies was 2.20 and 1.93 respectively. There were a greater number of non-tasters in both IPE and SPE than in the controls. The Chi-square test shows significant differences between IPE and controls, SPE and controls, but insignificant differences between IPE and SPE. These results show a significant association between PTC locus and epilepsy. Conclusions: We found significant association of PTC taste sensitivity gene with susceptibility to epilepsy. The dietary history of people reveals that cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, turnips, cauliflower, and brassica leaves are eaten almost daily in large amount during the winter season. These food habits have become part of their culture. The less sensitive tasters and non- tasters undergo greater thyroid stress due to greater ingestion of goitrogens in these vegetables. The fetuses of non-taster mothers would also be experiencing some thyroid stress during their intrauterine growth and development. Such a stress during intrauterine or early childhood growth and development might have affected neurological maturation and made these people more susceptible to epilepsy. Moreover interaction between genetic and environmental factors specific to the area and population may play a more crucial role in determining the susceptibility of the non-taster to epilepsy. Therefore, our research has been oriented towards such investigations that may apply to improve interventions for disease prevention and health promotion in clinical practice. Reference: 1. Paul J. Moberg, David R. Roalf, Catherine C. Balderston, Stephen J. Kanes, Raquel E. Gur, and Bruce I. Turetsky. Phenylthiocarbamide Perception in Patients with Schizophrenia and First-Degree Family Members. American journal of Psychiatry 2005; 162 (4):788-790.