Sugar as a remedy for the common cold

Sugar as a remedy for the common cold

Start-up developing therapies to combat viral infections

Rhinovirus 

Now a days the whole world is fighting a battle against viral attacks. Corona virus and influenza are the most discussed viruses in these days but there are other viruses which are infecting the human life. 

 

Common cold is a common disease which is most common in this season and we know that this is caused by rhinovirus. All the universities and researchers are contributing towards the control of different viruses. 

In order to participate in this effort a medical university of Vienna started a campaign to keep a sight on viral infections. The main object of this university is rhinovirus. Scientists of medical university of Vienna are making their efforts to stop the virus and at last they found a solution in the form of a particular therapy. They claim that this therapy will be used to treat cold in the upcoming days. 

As we know that viruses do not have their own metabolism they overtake the host metabolism and multiply themselves. In fact viruses are made up of genetic material such as DNA or RNA and this genetic material is enclosed in a protein coat. 

Viruses multiply within the host cell by up taking the nutrients of host cell. This requires a massive uptake of host cell nutrients and the viruses also have strategies to uptake the nutrients and also to force the host cell to inhale more nutrients. This is necessary for the completion of viral infection cycle and multiplication.

Scientists at medical university of Vienna are in effort to develop a phenomenon which can stop the viruses to access the host metabolic products. At the end their efforts brought the fruits and they successfully found a solution to apply on rhinovirus for the first time. Rhinovirus is a pathogen which causes a common cold in human. During their studies at medical university of Vienna they discovered that the inhibition of sugar utilization makes the virus particularly vulnerable.

Sugar as a remedy for the common cold

common cold

The scientists studied these concepts and identified a substance that is responsible to stop rhinovirus to attack the host. The substance is 2-Deoxyglucose. This stops the glycolysis in the host body which results in the hunger and then starvation of viral cells as this is very cheap and easily available product and this can stop the viral infection.

As there is more than enough knowledge regarding the tolerability of this sugar 2-Deoxyglucose, so that scientists working on the antiviral projects want to start its clinical tests at Vienna general hospital or in the medical university of Vienna .

Effective against other viruses as well?

As we know that all the viruses completely depend upon the metabolic products of host cell so scientists hope that after successful first implement of this method in order to stop virus to replicate in the host cell they will be able to imply this method for the stop down of other viral attacks as well. The other viruses may include corona viruses.

At this point if we are being able to find a solution to fight with corona virus by using this simple sugar molecule then it’s really amazing and thanks for those researches and scientists of medical university of Vienna.