HEY, for half a century, science condescendingly explained to grandmothers that a cold is caused by a virus, not a draft, and in 2022 found the mechanism by which the grandmothers were right after all (partly).
Background: Salisbury, 1946-1990, Common Cold Unit, 20,000 people went through it – they were infected with cold viruses and frozen (cold baths, drafts, wet swimsuits). They did not get sick more often. Next – Douglas’s work in 1968. There were 44 people, all given rhinovirus, one group sat at 4°C. No difference was found, and the article was titled “Failure to demonstrate effect”. The conclusion spread through popular books – cold has no relation to getting a cold, period.
New: In December 2022, they published the mechanism. In short. The nasal mucosa has a frontline (only discovered in 2018). Sensing a pathogen, cells throw extracellular vesicles into the nasal mucus – the authors describe this as “kicking a wasp nest”. These vesicles feature the same receptors that the virus latches onto, denser than on the cells themselves – it sticks to the dummy and doesn’t reach the cell. Then the experiment – 15 minutes at 4.4°C – and the temperature inside the nose drops by 5°C. On tissue cooled just the same, nearly 42% fewer vesicles are thrown, antiviral microRNAs in each are halved, and up to 70% fewer receptors.
Conclusion: “getting a cold from cold” is wrong, but “easier to get infected in the cold if there is someone to catch it from” is very much so. The most interesting part is what they want to make out of this. Since the swarm can be summoned, the authors discuss a spray that commands the mucosa to “kick the wasp nest” in advance.
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 