The common cold: potential for future prevention or cure

Abstract

The common cold is the most frequent, although generally mild, human disease. Human Rhinoviruses are the prevalent causative agents, but other viruses are also implicated. Being so common, viral colds, have significant implications on public health and quality of life, but may also be life-threatening for vulnerable groups of patients. Specific diagnosis and treatment of the common cold still remain unmet needs. Molecular diagnostic techniques allow specific detection of known pathogens as well as the identification of newly emerging viruses. Although a number of medications or natural treatments have been shown to have some effect, either on the number or on the severity of common colds, no single agent is considerably effective. Virus-specific management remains in most cases a challenging potential as many factors have to be taken into account, including the diversity of the viral genomes, the heterogeneity of affected individuals, as well as the complexity of this long standing host-virus relationship.

Fig. 1

Common cold symptoms and possible complications result from a dynamic interplay between infecting virus characteristics and host’s immune response. In the majority of cases, common cold is a relatively mild and self limited illness. However, affected individuals with defective immunity -either because of an underlying condition (i.e. asthma, immunodeficiency, young or old age) or as a result of environmental conditions (i.e. smoking, stress, pollution)- may experience severe (even fatal) complications.