Scientists have unraveled the genetic code of the common cold ”” all 99 known strains of it, to be exact.
But don’t expect the feat to lead to a cure for the sniffling any time soon. It turns out that rhinoviruses are even more complicated than researchers originally thought.
In fact, the genetic blueprints showed that you can catch two separate strains of cold at the same time ”” and those strains then can swap their genetic material inside your body to make a whole new strain.
It’s why we’ll never have a vaccine for the common cold, said biochemist Ann Palmenberg of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who led the three teams that assembled the family tree of the world’s rhinoviruses.
“No vaccine, but maybe a drug,” she said.
Sent this on to a daughter in Bristol (UK) who has e-mailed “I am at home under the duvet – have come down with another bug which I have tried to fight off but has now gone to my chest. I set off for work this morning but had to turn around 1 minute later and liaising with them by email!”
She is a cytogeneticist dealing with DNA codes every day. Whether this article will get through to her brain today is another matter.