Researchers could be only five years away from cure for cold

Scottish researchers say they could be as little as five years away from a cure for the common cold.

Scientists at Edinburgh Napier University are working on a family of molecules known as “host defence” or “antimicrobial” peptides.

As well as humans, they are found in many other mammals, plants and insects.

The Napier team, led by Dr Peter Barlow, associate professor of immunology and infection, and director of research of the School of Applied Sciences at the university, say they have shown already these peptides can kill a wide range of bacteria, fungi and viruses.

One of their studies showed a peptide found in the human immune system, cathelicidin, to be “incredibly effective” at killing the influenza virus at a level comparable with current anti-influenza drugs. The team now say they have investigated whether this same human cathelicidin peptide could kill rhinovirus, one of the most common cold germs.

Dr Barlow said they were “excited” to find that it did.

He said: “We found that cathelicidins from other animals such as pigs were very effective at killing this human virus, too, raising the prospect that peptides from the immune systems of other mammals could be employed to fight this infection.”

Dr Barlow said his team’s approach – along with others that also offer hope against the cold – is “probably about five to ten years from potentially producing a viable treatment”.

He warned, however: “Just as antibiotic resistance is an increasingly serious problem, the same thing can happen with viral treatments.”