[Gpdd] [HEALTH]<Common cold research>

[Janneke Staaks]

Hey Deb (and others ;-) ),
 
Sorry, I got a bit nerdy when you asked your question...
I did a quick search in Pubmed (medical database; i'm a information specialist/librarian nowadays)
I combined the official search term for the common cold and limited it to animal research. Next i further specified that search by adding the offical search term for guinea pigs. That got me 12 articles that did common cold research on guinea pigs (mostly vitamin C related). So, obviously, they know about guinea pigs being able to catch a cold. Then I did the same, but replaced the guinea pigs term for the mice term. That got me 21 articles.
 
So... the problem is, that i do not have the medical background to fully interpret all the articles (that common cold stuff is pretty complicated..pfff). Nor do I have full access to the articles. What I do understand is that there are several strains of viruses ..eh.. *thinkthink*
.. So I did a websearch on your news and found this: http://biotech.about.com/b/2008/02/06/gm-mice-aid-common-cold-research.htm ...
 
So this confirms the news, AND they actually got it published in a legit journal (It has a doi, I dont have full access at home, but I think they got it published in nature. which is an important scientific journal)
As I understand it, colds can be caused by several strains of viruses. A common one for primates is the rhinovirus and this one cannot cause a cold for most non-primates. But there are others out there.. (and I cannot find what they mean with most non-primates.. are our piggies the exception?)
Dont pin me down on this, but these are my 2 cents..
 
Janneke
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