SCIENCE / MEDICINE : Moving Toward Preventing Colds

A new step toward protection against the common cold has been taken by researchers at Boeringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Ridgefield, Conn. They reported in the journal Nature last week that they have discovered a way to trick rhinoviruses, which cause more than half of all colds, into not infecting cells in the nose.

Their work relied on the discovery last year by two groups of researchers that the rhinoviruses bind to a specific receptor, called ICAM-1, on the external membrane of cells in the nasal passage. If the viruses do not bind to the receptor, they do not infect the cells.

Molecular biologist Steven D. Marlin and his colleagues used genetic engineering techniques to make multiple copies of a form of ICAM-1 that could be dissolved in water. When they sprayed a solution of the receptors onto the surface of nasal cells grown in the laboratory, they found that the receptors tied up all the rhinoviruses to which the cells were subsequently exposed, thereby preventing infection.

The next step will be to try the soluble ICAM-1 in living animals.