Common Cold Code Cracked?
Seattle – Most people think of the common cold as a mere nuisance, but it can actually be debilitating to children, the elderly, and people with weakened immune systems. Now, new research into the Rhinovirus has cracked the secret behind why the cold is so common.
Researchers at the University Of Maryland School Of Medicine in Baltimore have mapped the entire genome of the cold virus, and have discovered a short-cut in the virus’s lifespan. The Human Rhinovirus Infection (common cold) uses a single gene to move rapidly from person to person, which is why the onset of a cold is so immediate. The virus mutates so efficiently that finding a cure was nearly impossible-until now.
“These things really are different. And they’re different enough that we need to come up with a more sophisticated way of attacking them for treatment,” said Dr. Stephen B. Liggett, director of the cardiopulmonary genomics program at the University of Maryland, and senior author of a report on the discoveries published in the Feb. 12 online issue of Science.
Researchers discovered that Rhinoviruses are organized in 15 small groups, all of which evolved from common ancestors. After decoding the genes of all 99 known strains of the common cold, researchers discovered that although the virus evolves rapidly, all strains of the virus are related in some way or another, forming a “family tree” of sorts.
The way the Rhinovirus is composed also contributes to its widespread contagiousness. Because the cold virus has only one gene, once caught it becomes a giant protein. But the enzyme protease divides the protein into several smaller pieces. Previously, researchers tried attack the whole protein, but now genetic mapping has given them the small pieces to work with. It may even be possible to develop drugs that attack the protease itself, preventing it from cleaving the protein-a method that has worked in fighting AIDS.
The genetic mapping of the Rhinovirus also showed that a person can have more than one strain of cold at a time, and sometimes those strains can swap genes, making an entirely new strain. Mapping the cold genome can also help to further investigate which part of the genome are more likely to participate in this “recombination”. During cold season, when so many unique Rhinovirus strains are moving around, recombination could produce many new strains. In fact, as many as 800 mutations were evident in virus samples taken from cold sufferers.
Because the common cold is organized into small parts, and evolves so quickly, a one-dose-fits-all approach won’t work. That eliminates the idea of developing a vaccine anytime soon, so drug developers are looking along the lines of anti-viral medications. Researchers are so confident in this find that we may even be able to see the development of new drugs within 2-5 years.
Seasonal snifflers rejoice! This new research into the genetic mapping of the common cold could make large strides into new drug development, easing the suffering of millions of people annually, and cutting back on the massive expense of suppressing those annoying cold symptoms.
However, cold research is not a priority for researchers.
“It’s not a killer for most people. It’s a nuisance. It’s not something that people are going to want to invest a tremendous amount of new additional costs in to get minimal gain,” said Dr. Aaron Glatt, a spokesperson for the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
The study is published in the Journal Science.