A cure for the common cold may finally be achieved as a result of a remarkable discovery in a Cambridge laboratory

Tuesday, 2 November 2010

In a dramatic breakthrough that could affect millions of lives, scientists have been able to show for the first time that the body's immune defences can destroy the common cold virus after it has actually invaded the inner sanctum of a human cell, a feat that was believed until now to be impossible.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/a-cure-for-the-common-cold-may-finally-be-achieved-as-a-result-of-a-remarkable-discovery-in-a-cambridge-laboratory-2122607.html

However, a study by a team of researchers from the world-famous Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge has shown that this textbook explanation of the limits of the human immune system is wrong because anti-viral antibodies can in fact enter the cell with the invading virus where they are able to trigger the rapid destruction of the foreign invader.

"In any immunology textbook you will read that once a virus makes it into a cell, that is game over because the cell is now infected. At that point there is nothing the immune response can do other than kill that cell," said Leo James, who led the research team.

But studies at the Medical Research Council's laboratory have found that the antibodies produced by the immune system, which recognise and attack invading viruses, actually ride piggyback into the inside of a cell with the invading virus.


This could be huge, and the "common cold" would be the least important application.