Common Cold Vaccine Passes Mice Test

Scientists are making the case that a vaccine against rhinoviruses, the dominant cause of the common cold, is achievable.

Human rhinovirus (HRV) infections are the major cause of the common cold, which exacerbates diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Despite this enormous cost to treat these diseases, there is currently no vaccine to prevent the common cold.

The quest for discovering a rhinoviruses vaccine has been an ongoing, complicated challenge, as there are 100+ varieties circulating around the world.

There are three known species of HRV and 150–170 serologically distinct HRV types. Recent sequencing methods have defined:

• 83 A types
• 32 B types
• 55 C types

A recent proof of principle mice study demonstrate that polyvalent inactivated HRV vaccine expanded to a 50-valent composition, with alum adjuvant, was immunogenic against approximately one-third of circulating HRV types.

This study showed that serum nAb against many rhinovirus types can be induced by polyvalent, inactivated HRVs plus alhydrogel (alum) adjuvant.

These researchers said they were able to complete this study in 2017 because of the ‘progress in technology and advancement of more complex vaccines renders impediments to a polyvalent HRV vaccine manageable.’

Ultimately, this development approach may lead to vaccines for the common cold.

But not in time for 2017 common cold season.

This study was supported by a pilot grant from the Emory+Children’s Center for Childhood Infections and Vaccines (CCIV) to M.L.M and in part by Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health grants 1R01AI087798 and 1U19AI095227 to M.L.M.

M.L.M. co-founded and serves as Chief Scientific Officer for Meissa Vaccines, Inc. S.L., M.T.N. and M.L.M are co-inventors in a patent application (PCT/US2016/037658) describing the rhinovirus vaccine reported in this paper. The vaccine technology has been optioned to Meissa Vaccines, Inc. by Emory University. The remaining authors declare no competing financial interests.