Rhinovirus genome sequenced! - Hope for a common cold drug...

I am gonna kill the next person who says 'something is in the air this february'.. everytime there happens to be a virus in the air for me - no, not the usual rosy love virus that everyone talks about.. in 2008 it was chicken pox virus and now in 2009, it was the common cold - causing rhinovirus, both during btx!!

But it turned out that my fever and cold during this btx actually did some good to my biotech knowledge. I googled a bit on cold causing rhinovirus, as I remembered reading recently that its genome had been sequenced. I have a cold often, i have been living with it literally. It's one of the most irritating and annoing diseases i have known and that probably made me to dwell more on his topic. Here’s something more on it.

Scientists say they have put together the pieces of the genetic codes for all known strains of the pathogen responsible for the common cold, in a work that might eventually lead to the first cure for the illness. Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the University of Wisconsin-Madison completed the genomic sequences of many strains of the virus, called the human rhinovirus, and assembled them into a “family tree” showing their relationships. The study appears in the Feb. 12 online version of the journal Science.There has been no success in developing effective drugs to cure the common cold, which is due to incomplete information about the genes. The researchers found that human rhinoviruses are organized into about 15 small groups that come from distant ancestors. The discovery of these multiple groups explains why a “one-drug-fits-all” approach for anti-viral agents doesn’t work. But, perhaps several anti-viral drugs could be developed, targeted to specific genetic regions of certain groups. The choice would be based on the genetic characteristics of a patient’s rhinovirus infection. While anti-virals seem the best bet, the data gathered from these full genome sequences gives us an opportunity to reconsider vaccines as a possibility.
The analysis found that some human rhinoviruses result from the exchange of genetic material between different strains of the virus in one person. The viruses also mutate often, helping them avoid being hunted down by the immune system.

Now we can put together many pieces of the human rhinovirus puzzle to help us answer some fundamental questions: “how these rhinoviruses might mutate as they spread from one person to another; which rhinoviruses are more associated with asthma etc .." With all this information at hand, we can see a strong potential for the development of the long-sought cure for the common cold.

My dearest rhino virus, baby u better BEWARE!! coz we biotech people are after you and not once again would a girl have to sorely miss a carrot halwa icecream topped deliciously with strawberry sauce for the fear of cold!!!