Diallyl sulfides in garlic activate both TRPA1 and TRPV1.

We searched for novel agonists of TRP receptors especially for TRPA1 and TRPV1 in foods. We focused attention on garlic compounds, diallyl sulfide (DAS), diallyl disulfide (DADS), and diallyl trisulfide (DATS). In TRPA1 or TRPV1 heterogeneously expressed CHO cells, all of those compounds increased [Ca(2+)](i) in concentration-dependent manner. The EC(50) values of DADS and DATS were similar to that of allyl isothiocyanate (AITC) and that of DAS was 170-fold larger than that of AITC. Maximum responses of these sulfides were equal to that of AITC. The EC(50) values of these compounds for TRPV1 were around 100 microM against that of capsaicin (CAP), 25.6 nM and maximum responses of garlic compounds were half to that of CAP. The Ca(2+) responses were significantly suppressed by co-application of antagonist. We conclude that DAS, DADS, and DATS are agonist of both TRPA1 and TRPV1 but with high affinity for TRPA1.