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A Cure for the Common Cold?

© Neal Rolfe Chamberlain

The common cold is an extremely common infection of people. Most adults get two to three colds per year. Children can get five to seven colds per year. The common cold has been felt by nearly everyone on this planet. We all hate the constant runny nose, cough, sneezing, fatigue, and general unwell feeling that comes with this microbial infection. About one half of the common colds are caused by Rhinoviruses. Over 100 different Rhinoviruses can cause the common cold.

Some simple calculations can tell you that it would take most of your lifetime to become resistant to all the different Rhinoviruses. As a result some 30-35 million Americans visit their doctors each year due to common cold symptoms. Most of the time a common cold will go away in a week or two. However, there can be complications following infection with these nasty Rhinoviruses. Children with asthma oftentimes will have an asthma attack when they have a common cold. Other people can develop an infection of the sinuses, the ears, or of the lungs (bronchitis). If only someone could develop a drug that would eliminate this infection.

Drug companies have tried for years to develop a drug to eliminate the common cold. In fact, researchers have worked very hard to demonstrate that all Rhinoviruses bind to human cells via a protein called ICAM-1 (InterCellular Adhesion Molecule). They have also determined what portion of the virus binds to ICAM-1. Knowing these two pieces of information a drug company called ViroPharm has developed a drug called pleconaril (prounounced plah-CONN-ah-rill) that will bind to the portion of the virus that attaches to ICAM-1 thus preventing the virus from infecting human cells.

The trouble is that once you are ill with the common cold your nasal cells are already infected. Early studies have shown that if a person with the common cold is treated with pleconaril they will get over their cold 2 to 3 day earlier than if they had not taken the drug. This could be very helpful to people that are more likely to develop severe complications due to the common cold.

However, the truly amazing thing about pleconaril is that it can be used to treat other viral infections. Rhinoviruses belong to a family of viruses called the picornaviruses. Most of the picornaviruses bind to humans just like rhinoviruses. Members of this family of viruses can cause polio, heart infections (myocarditis), and brain infections (viral meningitis). Some of these infections can be life threatening. Before this drug physicians could do nothing except wait to see if you would get better. If this drug proves to