An end to the common cold?

Do you think this might possibly be newsworthy? Scientists in England have found a way to defeat the common cold! Laura Donnelly, Health Editor of the U.K. Telegraph, reports:

A scientific breakthrough could herald an end to the common cold, after researchers found a way to “jam” the genetic code and stop the virus replicating.

Experts said the discovery could allow scientists to design molecules which could “stop the virus in its tracks” - fending off colds and winter vomiting disease.

Scientists from the Universities of Leeds and York used a computer-based model to identify a code in the viral genome, which causes rhinoviruses, the most common group of viruses, and the cause of most colds.

They said the breakthrough means that in future, it could be possible to find a way to jam the messages conveyed by the molecules, stopping the virus functioning before disease even starts.

...However, that day could be some time off, with trials on animal viruses required before scientists are able to develop a drug which acts on the signals in the genetic code.

Read more here.

Stay warm!

Your mother and grandmother were right. Being exposed to cold temperatures can cause you to be more susceptible to the viruses that cause the common cold.

Lead study author Dr. Ellen Foxman, a researcher at Yale University School of Medicine, and her colleagues, set out to investigate how temperature can affect immune response.

The researchers studied how a mouse-adapted cold virus fared in the rodent nasal cavity -- which typically is a temperature of 91 to 95 degrees -- and compared that to viral spread within the lungs -- which have a temperature of 98.6 degrees.

What they discovered was that when a virus invaded warmer cells, the host cells produced significantly more interferons -- proteins that "interfere" with the spread of a virus by warning healthy cells of its presence and setting off an immune response.

In the cooler nasal cavity cells, this warning system was less efficient however, and allowed the virus to spread more easily.

Read more here.
Thanks to Scott Ott