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Stanford and the University of California- San Francisco say that working together, they may be close to finding a cure for the common cold. The secret of the cure lies in humans, not the cold virus.
They claim that disabling a single, supposedly non-critical protein in humans may stop viruses from replicating. This method has been previously used to stop viruses associated with polio and asthma.
Stanford Medicine says there are over 160 rhinovirus infections that can cause about half of colds. This is the reason why you can get multiple colds in a row. They can also mutate, which results in them being very resistant to drugs.
Researchers say they tried disabling a protein in the mammalian cells that the virus seems to need to replicate. They did this experiment on both mice and human cell cultures.
“Our grandmas have always been asking us, ‘If you’re so smart, why haven’t you come up with a cure for the common cold?’” Jan Carette, Stanford associate professor of microbiology and immunology, said in a press release. “Now we have a new way to do that.”
A 2003 University of Michigan study found that the common cold costs the U.S. economy $40 billion per year due to healthcare costs and lost productivity. It is one of the most frequent illnesses that we as humans face year after year.
Click here to read the study.
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