No cure for the common cold, yet...

Hurray! It's Friday again. I'm surprised I actually survived the week. I think I would consider this week quite eventful. One of the more significant "events" was my IA supervisor asking me to extend my IA, voluntarily. Personally, I wouldn't mind doing so, but the problem is lies with my FYP, cos I'm not sure when FYP is supposed to start. Sigh... To extend or not to extend. That is the question...

Anyway, today's article brings good some news - researchers have actually found a compound that might cure the common cold. The common cold virus has baffled researchers for decades because they mutate each season. As Carol Post of Purdue University put it, "The common cold virus can hide in a crowd because it always looks like someone else – it's the bug of a hundred faces."

However, although the surface features of the virus may change, there is one characteristic that doesn't - the way they reproduce. To reproduce, these sneaky bugs all open up their shell to release their RNA into a cell. So the target of this new research is on how to prevent that very "opening" of the shell, in other words, how to lock their door and throw away the key.

This "lock" was found in something called antiviral WIN compounds, however, such compounds have undesirable side effects. Since you can't die from the common cold (well not easily anyway), the cure for it must be free from side effects. But research on WIN compounds is still going on and so far it has proven promising.

Scientists have found that due to the WIN compound's flexible structure, they can "wiggle" their way into little holes or pockets in the protein of the virus and make the viral shell rigid. This would then prevent the shell from opening, and thus prevent the virus from reproducing.

Well, if they can get rid of the side-effects, we may no longer be troubled by runny/blocked noses for much longer. Haha. And hopefully, these compounds can also be used on other viruses like AIDS or Bird Flu or SARS or other deadly viruses. Wouldn't that be nice...

Don't throw your chicken soup out just yet, but new research has uncovered how a class of compounds can shut down reproduction in cold-causing viruses by wiggling inside and altering their behavior.

The breakthrough may point the way toward future drug development aimed at averting colds.

One reason a cure for the common cold remains elusive is that the offending viruses are shape-shifters -- they mutate from one cold season to the next. You may succeed in beating one version, but then you’re unprepared for the next incarnation.

Click here for the full article.