Rhinovirus Assist: Common Cold Jump Initiates Physical Antiviral Defense Against Seasonal Influenza

As the flu season approaches, the strained public health system may have a surprising ally, the common cold virus. Rhinoviruses can also interfere with the spread of other viruses.

Rhinovirus, the most frequent cause of colds, can prevent the influenza virus from infecting the respiratory tract by rapidly initiating the body’s antiviral defenses. Lancet microorganism..

The findings will help answer the mystery surrounding the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic. In Europe, the expected surge of swine flu cases did not materialize in the fall season when colds are widespread.

A team at the Yale University, led by Dr. Ellen Foxman, investigated three-year clinical data of over 13,000 patients with respiratory infections at Yale New Haven Hospital. Researchers found that even during the months when both viruses were active, the influenza virus was absent if the common cold virus was present.

“The data revealed that very few people were infected with both viruses at the same time,” said Foxman, assistant professor of medicine and immunobiology, and lead author of the study. Said.

Foxman stressed that scientists do not know if the annual seasonal spread of the common cold virus would have a similar effect on the prevalence of people exposed to the COVID-19-causing coronavirus. ..

“It is impossible to predict how two viruses will interact without doing research,” she said.

To test how rhinoviruses and influenza viruses interact, Foxman’s lab covers human airways from stem cells that cover the airways of the lung and give rise to epithelial cells, which are the primary targets of respiratory viruses. I created an organization. They found that the influenza virus was unable to infect the tissue after it was exposed to the rhinovirus.

“By the time the influenza virus arrived, anti-virus protection was already on,” she said.

The presence of rhinovirus caused the production of the antiviral drug interferon, which is part of the early immune system’s response to pathogen invasion, Foxman said.

“The effect lasted for at least 5 days,” she said.

According to Foxman, her lab has begun investigating whether introducing a cold virus before infecting the COVID-19 virus would provide similar protection.

The study authors said:

“The COVID-19 pandemic emphasizes the urgency of understanding and predicting the spread of respiratory viruses to design effective interventions. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS- CoV-2) infection is expected to cross the annual fall rhinovirus epidemic and winter flu season from 2020 to 21. The study presented here shows that rhinovirus and other respiratory Raises the question of whether the genital virus interferes with SARS-CoV-2: Studies show that SARS-CoV-2, like IAV (influenza A virus) and many other viruses, is blocked by interferon If interference with the rhinovirus disrupts the 2009 IAV epidemic in Europe, viral interference, or even therapeutic induction of the respiratory tract interferon response, can disrupt the current pandemic. To establish the effects of rhinovirus and airway interferon responses to SARS-CoV-2, especially in light of evidence that SARS-CoV-2 virus entry receptor ACE2 itself is ISG (interferon stimulated), A lot of work is needed. Genes.”

of Foxman Lab Yale University is investigating natural defense mechanisms that protect the respiratory tract from viral infections. Researchers use both laboratory experiments and analysis of patient samples to understand how viruses interact with the respiratory tract. Their goal is to identify the mechanisms that block viral replication and understand why these defenses do not always work in order to find new ways to detect, prevent, and treat respiratory infections.

Interference between rhinovirus and influenza A virus: clinical data analysis and infection studies.. Lancet microorganisms. September 4, 2020.