Researcher Closer To Finding Cure For Common Cold

Seattle - Common Cold Code Cracked?  For everyone who has suffered from a runny nose and irritable watery eyes, and wished that there was a good enough cure from the common cold, this is the time for cheer. For in the Thursday 12 February issue of Science, experts reported that the cure for the common cold, an elusive objective for the medical world for ages, might just be round the corner.

Stephen Liggett, an asthma expert at the University of Maryland, and co-author of the finding, said that with the development of the complete catalogue of the vulnerabilities of the cold virus, researchers are now pretty sure that the Achilles’ heel is in sight. This means, effectively that a completely effectual cure for the common cold might not be far away.

The common cold known to be caused by the rhinovirus, has too many strains and presents a moving target for any medicine or vaccine. This had made the correct treatment for the cold very hard to pin down.

Another hindrance to medicine production is that most people will refuse to pay much for such a minor bother. So it was improbable that the FDA would endorse a medicine with any grave snag for such an insipid ailment and drug firms were reluctant to invest in the same.

Led by Liggett and Ann Palmenberg, a cold virologist from the University of Wisconsin, a research group may have got the better of this trail of troubles with new information on the rhinovirus’ evolutionary approach. Aided by Fraser-Liggett, a foremost genome researcher from the University of Maryland, they have interpreted the genomes of all 99 rhinovirus strains.
The team employed virus samples assembled from nasal swabs from doctors’ offices over twenty years and kept in the Virginia-based private non-profit American Type Culture Collection. Ligett commented that the viruses are still developing. When the researchers contrasted few samples taken in 2005 with some from ‘70s, they discovered quite a few mutations. But, they are sure, that the major evolutionary structure of the virus has remained unchanged.

The new information might offer the right break to look for approaches for a new vaccine and will also be of utmost significance for asthma specialists. Rhinoviruses are known to start 50% of all asthma attacks. It would be an extraordinary progress in the treatment of asthma, said Fernando Martinez, a University of Arizona asthma expert. He thinks with the new rhinovirus family tree it seems promising for the first time to spot the specific branch that held the viruses that affect asthma patients most and then discover an antiviral agent against this virus cluster.

While some experts believe that individuals at great peril from rhinoviruses, like asthmatic kids or adults with persistent obtrusive pulmonary ailments, would gain a lot from new drugs, some others are of the opinion that there will never be a vaccine for the common cold as vaccines are incapable of protecting the nose’s inside layer which is attacked by the virus.