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.

A Precision Medicine Approach to Rhinitis Evaluation and Management

“…Acute rhinosinusitis is predominantly of viral origin, with the usual causes being rhinovirus, coronavirus, adenovirus, parainfluenza virus, respiratory syncytial virus, or enterovirus [32,33]. Viral rhinosinusitis may be complicated by secondary bacterial superinfection (i.e., Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, Moraxella catarrhalis) that establishes a bacterial rhinosinusitis endotype [34].…”

Molecular Diagnosis of Human Adenovirus in Children with Upper Respiratory Tract Infections

“…Major pathogens that induce URIs are human rhinoviruses (HRVs), belong to Picornaviridae [29]. Other common causative agents are a respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), parainfluenza virus, enterovirus (EV) from the family Picornaviridae and genus Enterovirus, coronavirus, and influenza virus type A and B [30]. In addition, a number of novel human respiratory viruses, including human metapneumovirus (hMPV), coronavirus (CoV), polyomaviruses and human bocavirus (HBoV) are also contributing to respiratory infections [31].…”

Pathophysiology of Clinical Symptoms in Acute Viral Respiratory Tract Infections

“…For example in a study by Asada et al (2012) L-carbocysteine reduced the baseline and RS virus infection-induced secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-8 as well as virus titers in the supernatant of human tracheal epithelial cells culture. Although a virus-orientated approach and the development of anti-viral agents should be more beneficial, the diverse etiology makes the development of universal antivirals highly unlikely (Passioti et al 2014).…”