Scientists one step closer to curing the common cold
It is the scourge of the winter season but scientists say they are now a step closer to curing the common cold.
Researchers at Imperial College London have developed a new molecule IMP-1088, which targets human cells that allow the cold virus to spread.
Like all viruses, the common cold virus enters the human body and takes over particular cells to duplicate itself.
But a study published in Nature Chemistry describes how IMP-1088 blocks a protein in human body cells which the cold virus hijacks to replicate itself.
It took mere minutes for the new molecule to take effect on human lung cells in a laboratory trial.
It’s a radically different approach to targeting the common cold virus, which comes in hundreds of different versions and can mutate rapidly leading to drug resistance.
Researchers are now working on a drug that can be inhaled for people who are just at the start of a cold infection.
Tests on people could begin within two years, the researchers say.
“The idea is that we could give it to someone when they first become infected and it would stop the virus being able to replicate and spread,” Researcher Professor Ed Tate said.