Stanford, UCSF step closer to cure for common cold

SAN FRANCISCO -- Bay Area scientists believe we are on the verge of a cure for the common cold.

Teams at Stanford and UCSF have announced a major first step. It involves temporarily disabling a single, specific protein inside our cells.

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They found that when that protein is disabled, it stops many common cold viruses and other diseases from spreading in the body.

Stanford University Associate Professor Jan Carette, PhD said "Traditional anti-viral drugs target the virus itself. But the virus is very smart and it can mutate its way around it. What we do is make the host inhospitable for these viruses. So it's much more difficult for these viruses to mutate around."

Now - the work begins to develop a drug that temporarily disables that protein.

Once that happens, human trials can begin, and if all goes well, a cure for the common cold could happen soon after.