Scientists claim to have discovered a potential cure for the cold

PanARMENIAN.Net - The common cold could be a thing of the past after UK scientists discovered a way to combat the virus.

The potential drug cure would look at treating the human hosts instead of the cold virus which comes in hundreds of different mutations, NEWS.com.au reports.

Visiting fellow at the National Heart and Lung Institute Roberto Solari told 3AW: “Before going into people we have to do safety and toxicology studies to show that it’s safe to administer to people.”

It would work by blocking a protein which the virus uses to spread throughout the body and should stop a cold quickly, according to lab studies reported in Nature Chemistry.

An early form the drug had worked within minutes of being applied to lung cells.

But the drug would have to be administered at the start of the infection in order to prevent the virus from spreading and outside a lab this is difficult to determine, the study showed.