Cold noses more vulnerable to catching colds

The most frequent cause of the common cold is a virus known as the rhinovirus. Scientists have observed that, in our airways, strains of rhinovirus replicate more readily at the cooler temperatures found in the nose, compared with that of the lungs. However, the underlying mechanism has not been clear.

Now, writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of researchers at Yale University in New Haven, CT, shows that the cells lining our airways produce a more robust antiviral response to the common cold at lung temperature than in the cooler environs of the nasal cavity.