PROVO, Utah, March 17 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists studying the rhinovirus genome say they've discovered how and where evolution occurs in the genome and what that means for possible vaccines.
"There are a lot of different approaches to treating the cold, none of which seem to be effective," said Brigham Young University Professor Keith Crandall, a co-author of the study. "This is partly because we haven't spent a lot of time studying the virus and its history to see how it's responding to the human immune system and drugs."
The BYU team said it studied genomic sequences available online and used computer algorithms to estimate how the rhinovirus is related to other viruses.
The study's lead author, postdoctoral fellow Nicole Lewis-Rogers, said the rhinovirus is similar to the polio virus, but while the polio virus has just three subspecies, the rhinovirus has more than 100 subspecies, which continually evolve.
Crandall said the virus is evolving solutions against the immune system and drugs, adding, "The more we can learn about how the virus evolves solutions, the better we can rid the body of these infections."
The study that included undergraduate Matthew Bendall is reported in the April issue of the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.
