The Common Cold at the Turn of the Millennium

Upper respiratory tract infections are one of the most common infectious diseases in man and are characterized by transient, relatively mild symptoms. Human rhinoviruses are known to be the major causative agent in adult common colds and their relative importance has further increased with the use of the sensitive RT-PCR technique. Characteristic for a common cold is the selective neutrophil recruitment and time-limited increase in mediator, cytokine, and chemokine concentrations that orchestrate chemotaxis, transmigration, and activation of inflammatory and immunocompetent cells. Common cold symptoms are found to correlate to rhinovirus-induced IL-8 elaboration and neutrophil activation. Treatment of rhinoviral upper respiratory tract infections consists of an inhibition of viral infection by antiviral agents and/or a reduction of symptoms by damping the host inflammatory response.