–Purbieta Nandy, Amity University Kolkata
The Covid-19 pandemic has placed new urgency on examining the mechanisms influencing the spread of the virus. With each passing day, new techniques combating SARS-CoV-2 are coming up; One of those mechanisms is Viral Interference-phenomenon in which infection with one virus promotes resistance to other viruses. During the 2009 pandemic of emerging Influenza-A virus Or Swine flu(H1N1), it is suggested that in Europe by the Annual Rhinovirus Epidemic (the yearly spread of common cold) could have stopped the further spread of swine flu from the second wave. Over three consecutive winters between 2016 and 2019 researchers took respiratory specimens from adults and analyzed. The epithelial cell cultures developed from the respiratory samples collected were injected with rhinovirus, inoculated the same cultures with the influenza-A virus three days after the rhinovirus infection took hold. The results were very low odds of co-detection of both infections at the same time were found. Thus, it was proved that the rhinovirus infection blocks the influenza infection as this led to a 50,000-fold decrease in the influenza-A virus.
This flicker of hope could promise us huge new possibilities in the battle against COVID.
Citation: Anchi Wu, Valia T Mihaylova, PhD,Prof Marie L Landry, MD,Prof Ellen F Foxman, MD Interference between rhinovirus and influenza A virus: a clinical data analysis and experimental infection study,2020
One thought on “Can one viral infection block the other?”