Common Cold can Help Combat Flu

Rhinovirus can prevent the flu virus from infecting airways by jumpstarting the body's antiviral defenses, reports a new study. The findings of the study are published in the journal The Lancet Microbe. The study's findings help answer a mystery encircling the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic: An anticipated surge in swine flu cases never emerged in Europe during the fall, when the common cold became widespread.

Clinical data of more than 13,000 subjects with respiratory infection symptoms were studied by a Yale team led by Dr. Ellen Foxman and found that even during months when both viruses were active, the flu virus was not if the common cold virus was present.

Foxman's lab designed human airway tissue from stem cells that give rise to epithelial cells to predict how two viruses will interact and found that after the tissue had been exposed to rhinovirus, the influenza virus could not infect the tissue.

The presence of rhinovirus triggered the antiviral agent interferon production, which is part of the early immune system response to the invasion of pathogens, Foxman said.

"The effect persisted for at least five days," she said.

Source-Medindia