We found that a biologically active class of flavonoids, anthocyanidins, stimulate taste-receptor independent NO production from airway epithelial cells. However, these compounds increase bacterial swimming motility, which might be bad from a therapeutic standpoint. These results highlight the benefits of testing potential therapeutic compounds in in vitro assays, including in vitro bacterial assays, to better predict their effects in vivo.
There are more papers on the horizon from Ben's work....
