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Cold Virus Shown to Manipulate Genes
Sneezing, runny nose and chills? You could blame the human rhinovirus (HRV)

Sneezing, runny nose and chills? You might blame the human rhinovirus (HRV), which causes 30 to 50 percent of common colds. But in reality, its not the virus itself but HRV's ability to manipulate your genes that is the true cause of some of the most annoying cold symptoms.

For the first time, researchers have shown that HRV hijacks many of your genes and causes an overblown immune response that ends up with your nose being overblown. The research is the first study comprehensively to review gene changes caused by HRV.

While colds are usually considered to be minor infections of the nose and throat, they can have much more serious health repercussions. Rhinovirus is the major cause of the common cold, but it is also an important pathogen in more serious conditions such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
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During research tests, after 8 hours there were virtually no differences between a control and an HRV-inoculated group, but by the 48-hour mark, more than 6500 genes has been significantly up-regulated or down-regulated in the HRV subjectsâ€”many of the more highly up-regulated genes fell into two major categories: genes making antiviral proteins, including viperin; or genes making pro-inflammatory cytokines.

This is the first comprehensive picture to identify several groups of genes that are likely to contribute to the pro-inflammatory and antiviral response.

The researchers also found that virus levels more than doubled in cells that had had the viperin-producing gene lessened, showing that HRV replication was hampered by viperin, an unexpected finding. Some evidence existed that this protein (only discovered a few years ago) had effects on influenza, but nothing was known about its role in rhinovirus infections.

This may identify pro-inflammatory, or host defense pathways that could be targeted for drug development, not only as treatments for colds but also for viral exacerbations of asthma and COPD. The fact that genes associated with structural remodeling of the airways were also altered, supports further study of the role of rhinovirus infections in airway remodeling in asthma.

The study's findings are a major step toward more targeted cold prevention and treatment strategies while also serving as a valuable roadmap for the broader respiratory science community.