
A close-up of the common cold virus.
A cure for the common cold has eluded scientists since the dawn of mankind.
Common colds — also known as human rhinovirus — affect billions of people worldwide every year and have more than 100 different, but related, strains. Each of these strains can cause a variety of symptoms in sufferers.
Doctors say that variety is what makes the common cold so hard to understand and so hard to treat.
Last year, researchers from the University of Maryland and the University of Wisconsin-Madison announced that they had taken the first step in finding a cure for rhinovirus by mapping each strain’s entire genome.
Now, those same scientists have found some interesting things about all those different strains.
“We continue to see a new virus that appears to come from two viruses,” said Dr. Stephen B. Liggett, co-leader of the project and a professor of medicine and physiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. “So a person can become infected with two viruses, and a third unique virus is formed.”
Why those mutations develop is still a major question, but Liggett says most of them don’t cause any harm. “It’s really more about why they develop … because many are not very strong, but in some cases, they are,” he said. “So we need to better understand them.”
When the different strains of the common cold were mapped early last year, researchers were looking for ways to develop diagnostic tests and eventually possible treatments.
Since the completion of the mapping, researchers have been working on a diagnostic test for the virus.
Originally, the test was expected to cost about $2,000, but they have perfected the technique and found they can develop a much cheaper test for about $20. That means a test for the cold may one day be common in doctors’ offices.
A fast and inexpensive test is good news for asthmatics and people who have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, for whom colds can be life-threatening.
“Fifty percent of the exacerbations that occur in patients who have these two diseases are due to a rhinovirus infection,” Liggett notes. “So it’s that group of people we are targeting. Those would be the first group we’d like to help.”
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