New Cold Treatment Developed At The University Of Virginia

"The new treatment is based on delivering a double blow to the cold illness," said principal investigator and the study's lead author Dr. Jack M. Gwaltney, Jr., chairman, Division of Epidemiology and Virology in the Department of Internal Medicine at U.Va. "One part of the treatment knocks out the virus which causes the infection, and the second part blocks the body's response to the infection, which is the cause of cold symptoms."

Research on what causes cold symptoms has been pioneered at U.Va. by Gwaltney, Dr. J. Owen Hendley and Dr. Birgit Winther, who are co-investigators of the new study. Their findings over the last two decades challenge the belief that cold symptoms are the result of the damage that a cold virus does to the lining of the nose. Instead, the U.Va. researchers found that virus damage to the nasal lining is minimal, and the symptoms of a cold are due to the body's inflammatory response to the infection. In recent years, they and other investigators have identified a number of inflammatory pathways associated with cold symptoms:

* Stuffy nose results from dilation of blood vessels in certain tissues in the nose called turbinates. When the blood vessels dilate, turbinates swell and block air passages, making breathing through the nose difficult. Certain natural inflammatory substances in the body, such as histamine and kinin, are released during cold virus infection, causing nasal blood vessels to dilate. Runny nose results from two different inflammatory events, nasal mucus gland secretion and leakage of fluid from nasal blood vessels. Nasal mucus gland secretion is triggered by the nervous system's response to cold virus infection. Fluid leakage from nasal blood vessels results from the action of histamine and kinin.

* Sneezing results from a reflex that originates in the nose, passes through the brain and activates the diaphragm and muscles in the chest. Antihistamine treatment blocks sneezing associated with colds, suggesting that histamine has a role in causing this symptom.

* Sore throat occurs when pain nerves in the throat are stimulated. Kinin, a potent stimulator of pain nerves, is released during colds.

* Cough results from another reflex that can be triggered by an inflammatory mediator produced in the body called prostaglandin.

* General cold symptoms, such as headache and not feeling well, are associated with interleukin, another inflammatory mediator.

The U.Va. clinical study was based on this new understan