Unit 3 Health & Medicine 1

The Uncommon Cold

1. What are the symptoms of a cold?
There are the sore throat, runny nose, constant sneezing and headaches.

2. What are the two major difficulties of finding a cure of cold?
(1) The common cold itself is not a single disease, and some cold viruses have the ability to change their molecular appearance.
(2) The cold virus does not actually cause our cold symptoms.

3. Describe BIRR4 project.
BIRR4 is an anti-viral molecule, and can prevent the binding of the virus to cells in the nose. This binding is an essential first step to start a viral infection and, were it preventable, many of the infections would be by passed.

4. Why did Boehringer drop BIRR4 project?
Because they found that this treatment only worked just prior to getting a cold or in the first stages of infection when most people do not yet realize anything is wrong.

5. How do we get the symptoms from colds?
The symptoms are produced by our body’s immune response, not by the virus itself.

6. What is the possible suggestion for finding a cure for colds?
We must weaken our immune system’s response.

7. What is the cocktail therapy for colds and what is its limitation?
Through a cocktail of certain drugs- interferon, ibuprofen, and chlorpheniramine- cold sufferers would be able to decrease the anti-inflammatory part of the immune response and get rid of their symptoms, while still allowing their body to fight off the remaining viral infection. But a single dose of interferon is too expensive and is unavailable in large over-the-counter quantities.