Vaccination against runny nose?

Dr. Andrea Bannert has been with since 2013. The doctor of biology and medicine editor initially carried out research in microbiology and is the team's expert on the tiny things: bacteria, viruses, molecules and genes. She also works as a freelancer for Bayerischer Rundfunk and various science magazines and writes fantasy novels and children's stories.

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Especially in winter, a stuffy, dripping nose plagues many. The sniff nose is mostly a nuisance, but it can also lead to life-threatening pneumonia. Scientists have now developed a vaccine against cold viruses. Can you say goodbye to colds forever?

If the nose drips, then the so-called rhinoviruses are usually to blame. The pathogens are also often the reason that you have to go to the hospital for pneumonia - even more often than with a flu infection. Because the mucous membranes are attacked by the cold infection - and germs that cause pneumonia can easily lodge. But while only two to three main types of influenza pathogens circulate each season, there are permanently between 150 and 170 different types of rhinovirus. A difficult starting point for the development of a cold vaccine.

50 virus types in one go

For a long time it was even considered impossible to develop a vaccine against the rhinoviruses. However, thanks to technical advances in vaccine production, it is now possible to increase the number of so-called components, i.e. the types of viruses against which a vaccination is effective. In this way, researchers from Martin Moore's team from the Emory School of Medicine in Atlanta have succeeded in developing a vaccine that works against 50 different cold viruses at the same time.

The test on two rhesus monkeys was promising: after the first vaccination, one monkey had developed antibodies against 90 percent of the common cold viruses, the second against 82 percent. After a booster vaccination, the animals had built up protection against 49 of the 50 virus types (98 percent).

Ineffective against type C viruses

So far, however, the vaccination has only been effective against so-called type A viruses. Together with the type C viruses, these are the most common triggers for dangerous courses of the disease. However, the type C viruses are not even included in the vaccine. Because they were only discovered ten years ago and have not yet been studied that well.

According to the researchers, it is not yet foreseeable whether the cold will soon be permanently out of the way. The vaccine has yet to be further developed and then tested in human clinical trials.

Source: Moore M.L. et al .: A polyvalent inactivated rhinovirus vaccine is broadly immunogenic in rhesus macaques, Nature Communications, September 22, 2016.

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