Scientists May Have Discovered a Cure for the Common Cold (and Lots of Other Viruses)

Tuesday, November 2, 2010 - 13:10 in Biology & Nature

Virus Attack! Virus (purple) circulating in the bloodstream recognised by antibodies (yellow) of the immune system The IndependentA new virus-killing technique could hit the market in just a few years Any immunology textbook will tell you that once a virus enters a cell, the only way to knock that virus out is to kill the entire cell. But a new study from the Laboratory of Molecular Biology at Cambridge has shown a way to kill a virus from within the cell, leaving the virus defeated and the cell victorious and intact. This could be huge--not just a cure for the common cold, but for all kinds of other viruses as well. The study, which will be published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, tackles a fundamental of immunology. It has long been assumed that the body's last chance to eliminate a virus is before it enters a...

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