Researchers provide new insights into how common cold virus infects

On average, each of us catches a cold two to three times a year. However, how the common cold virus actually infects us is only partly understood. Researchers from the Max F. Perutz Laboratories of the Medical University of Vienna and the University of Vienna, in collaboration with two Spanish groups, have now provided new insights into this process. The common cold virus (rhinovirus) is a tiny, almost round particle, containing the tightly packed genetic material surrounded by a protein shell (the virus capsid). Details on how the RNA is prepped to exit the capsid and effectively infect us have now been provided by scientists from the Max F. Perutz Laboratories in collaboration with groups at the Universities of Barcelona and Madrid. The study has been published in the prestigious journal PNAS. The researchers investigated how the structure of one of the common cold virus types changes upon infection with the host...