Colds research not to be sneezed at

The Holy Grail of viral research has been achieved with the development of a cure for the common cold. Maybe.

Researchers from San Diego, California, have come up with a substance which helps stop the cold virus copying itself and also limits the body's response to the virus. This should prevent the familiar, ghastly symptoms of runny nose, blocked sinuses and watery eyes.

The only problem is that it hasn't been tried on humans yet. It all works very well in the testtube, however, and the researchers from Agouron Pharmaceuticals Inc are pinning their hopes - and share value - on the drug doing the business for cold-sufferers around the world.

Details of the research are given in the May journals of the American Society for Microbiology publication, Anti-microbial Agents And Chemotherapy.

The group tested the drug on human cell lines, cultures of hu man tissues used to test the effectiveness of drugs and treatments. The human rhinovirus is the appropriate name for the 100 viral stereotypes responsible for the common cold and its beastly symptoms. The team from Agouron infected the cell lines with a rhino virus and then introduced an antiviral enzyme known as AG7088.

The enzyme greatly slowed the virus's ability to spread itself, a remarkable achievement in itself. More notably, however, it also seemed to block inflammation, the body's way of responding to viral attack.

The inflammation process is brought into play when cells are damaged and the body's immune system kicks into action. Substances called cytokines are released, including interleukin-6 and interleukin-8 (IL-6, IL-8); these in turn make the nose run and make the head feel like an overloaded sponge.

The chemical blocked viral duplication but it also inhibited the production of IL-6 and IL-8. Not only that, the researchers found that the compound could deliver these benefits even when delivered 26 hours after infection by the rhinovirus. "These findings have implications for the development of an anti-rhinovirus agent that may not only block virus replication but also diminish symptoms," the researchers predicted.