Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Disabling one protein might one day lead to a cure for the common cold

Disabling one protein might one day lead to a cure for the common cold

Illustration of rhinovirusesArticle: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/common-cold-virus-disable-protein
Related Article: https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2019/09/in-human-cells-and-mice-a-cure-for-the-common-cold.html 
Bib: Bates, S. (2019, September 24). Disabling one protein might one day lead to a cure for the common cold. Retrieved from https://www.sciencenews.org/article/common-cold-virus-disable-protein

    The common cold affects us all every winter and can even attack us in the summer months as well. While there is no cure yet for the common cold, scientisits are starting to discover that it may be possible to turn off the gene that creates the protein that helps the virus replicate. This helps prevent the virus spreading throughout the body. This method could also prevent drug resistance and the constant rush for a everchanging cure to the mutating common cold.
    Scientists were able to make a library of human cells in the lab and remove a different gene from each. Then each cell was infected with a virus, like the rhinovirus. This allowed for room to identify which gene is involved in making the protein that helps the vrius replicate. The protein that was found was SETD3. This is only a start to the process on finding a cure to the common cold because by removing or disabling the gene and protein could have adverse effects. Drug to effect this would be the goal, but we are still a long way away from that. 

1 comment:

  1. Through reading other blog posts, I feel like I've learned a lot about gene editing. I have yet to see it on a smaller scale like this though; I feel like it's usually in respects to heart disease and similar things. It's super interesting that a gene can even be responsible for the common cold, and even more-so that it can be eliminated!

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