RESEARCHERS CRACK THE CODE OF THE COMMON COLD

RESEARCHERS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND SCHOOL OF MEDICINE IN BALTIMORE AND COLLEAGUES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN MADISON HAVE COMPLETED THE GENOMIC SEQUENCES OF THE VIRUSES ASSEMBLED THEM INTO A "FAMILY TREE", WHICH SHOWS HOW THE VIRUSES ARE RELATED, WITH THEIR COMMONALITIES AND DIFFERENCES.....SCIENTIST HAVE BEGUN TO SOLVE SOME OF THE MYSTERIES OF THE COMMON COLD BY PUTTING TOGETHER PIECES OF THE GENETIC CODES FOR ALL THE KNOWN STRAINS OF THE HUMAN RHINOVIRUS.....THE RESEARCHES SAY THIS WORK PROVIDES A POWERFUL TOOL THAT MAY LEAD TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FIRST EFFECTIVE TREATMENTS AGAINST THE COMMON COLD....."There has been no success in developing effective drugs to cure the common cold, which we believe is due to incomplete information about the genetic composition of all these strains," says the study's senior author, Stephen B. Liggett, M.D., professor of medicine and physiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and director of its Cardiopulmonary Genomics Program.....
THE RESEARCHERS FOUND THAT HUMAN RHINOVIRUSES ARE ORGANIZED INTO ABOUT 15 SMALL GROUPS THAT COME FROM A DISTANT ANCESTORS.....THE RESEARCHERS ALSO FOUND THAT THE HUMAN RHINOVIRUS SKIPS A STEP WHEN IT MAKES ITS PROTEIN PRODUCT, A SHORTCUT THAT PROBABLY SPEEDS UP ITS ABILITY TO MAKE A PERSON FEEL SICK SOON AFTER INFECTION.....
THE ANALYSIS SHOWS THAT SOME HUMAN RHINOVIRUSES RESULT FROM THE EXCHANGE OF GENETIC MATERIAL BETWEEN TWO SEPARATE STRAINS OF THE VIRUS THAT INFECT THE SAME PERSON.....MULTIPLE MUTATION (AS MANY AS 800) WERE EVIDENT.....