Disabling one protein might one day lead to a cure for the common cold
Rhinoviruses couldn’t replicate in mice and human cells engineered to lack SETD3
By Sofie Bates
An uncommon way of thinking may be bringing scientists one step closer to a cure for the common cold.
Researchers have identified a key protein in humans that some viruses use to multiply inside of human cells. Disabling that protein, instead of attacking the virus itself, may prevent infections from spreading. In mice and human cells engineered to lack this protein, the viruses couldn’t replicate, Jan Carette, a microbiologist at Stanford University School of Medicine, and colleagues report September 16 in Nature Microbiology.
“It’s not quite a cure for the common cold, but it’s an interesting step forward,” says Ellen Foxman, an immunologist at Yale School of Medicine who was not involved in the study.
Colds are the most common infectious disease in humans. On average, adults catch a cold two or three times each year, while children get the sniffles even more often (SN: 2/12/09). Any one of a few hundred viruses, including rhinoviruses, can cause these infections. That fact — and because these viruses can mutate quickly to become resistant to drugs — makes it difficult to find a cure.