Activity-Guided Fractionation to Characterize a Coffee Beverage that Effectively Down-Regulates Mechanisms of Gastric Acid Secretion as Compared to Regular Coffee

In some individuals, the consumption of coffee beverages is related to symptoms of gastric irritation. Hot water steam-treatment of raw coffee beans is hypothesized to reduce the contents of stomach irritating compounds, and products to which this technology is applied are launched as stomach-friendly coffee. However, data on the effect of steam-treated coffee on gastric acid secretion are conflicting and it has not been proven yet as to which coffee components act as pro- or antisecretory stimulants. The work presented here aimed at the characterization of a coffee beverage that effectively down-regulates mechanisms of proton secretion in human gastric cells (HGT-1). At first, a regular coffee beverage was fractionated by using solvents of different polarity: water, ethylacetate, dichloromethane, and pentane. Functional assays on the proton secretory activity (PSA) of these solvent fractions revealed the least pronounced effect for the water fraction, for which quantitative analyses demonstrated the highest distribution of chlorogenic acid (95%), N-beta-alkanoyl-5-hydroxytryptamides (55%), and N-methylpyridinium (N-MP, >99%) among all fractions. Following experiments demonstrated that HGT-1 cells treated with regular coffee fortified with N-MP at a concentration of about 20 mg/mL N-MP showed a significantly decreased PSA as compared to cells which were exposed to coffee beverages containing higher (32-34 mg/L) or lower (5 mg/L) N-MP concentrations. Results from cellular pathway analyses of transcription (ATF-1 and Akt1) and signaling (CAMP and EGFr) factors and kinases (ERK1/2), and experiments on the gene expression of pro (histamine-HRH2 and acetylcholine-CHRM3)- and anti (somatostatin-SSTR1)-secretory receptors and H+,K+-ATPase verified this antisecretory activity of N-MP in coffee beverages.