Scientists are closer to understanding why some people get bad colds and others don’t.
Research released this week by the Yale School of Medicine shows your chances of getting a bad cold may be decided by how fast your nose fights back.
It found that nasal cells acted as a first line of defence against the common cold, working together to block rhinovirus soon after infection.
“A fast antiviral response can stop the virus before symptoms appear,” the research report, published in Cell Press Blue, said.
“If that response is weakened or delayed, the virus spreads and causes inflammation and breathing problems. The study highlights why the body’s reaction matters more than the virus alone.”
The study found that when rhinovirus, the most common cause of the common cold, entered the nasal passages, the cells lining of the nose immediately begin working together to fight the infection.
These cells activated a wide range of antiviral defences designed to limit the virus and stop it from spreading.
“As the number one cause of common colds and a major cause of breathing problems in people with asthma and other chronic lung conditions, rhinoviruses are very important in human health,” Senior author Ellen Foxman of Yale School of Medicine said.
“This research allowed us to peer into the human nasal lining and see what is happening during rhinovirus infections at both the cellular and molecular levels.”
The researchers were able to monitor how thousands of individual cells responded to infection.
They also examined what happened when the cellular sensors responsible for detecting rhinovirus were blocked.
“When nasal cells detect rhinovirus, they release interferons that activate antiviral defences not only in infected cells but also in nearby healthy cells,” the report said.
“This coordinated response makes it difficult for the virus to reproduce and spread. If interferon activity begins quickly, the infection can be contained early.”
The study suggested that different people reacted differently to a virus threat because it depended on how individual bodies responded, rather than just the virus itself.
The study was conducted by Bao Wang, Julien A.R. Amat, Valia T. Mihaylova, Yong Kong, Guilin Wang and Ellen F. Foxman.
The full report is available here.
