The Medical Research Council has shown that antibodies can actually move inside cells and fight viruses from the inside, opposed to the previous way antibodies were thought to work, which is by blocking or attacking viruses from the outside.
It is believed this discovery can lead to a cure or at least much more effective treatment for various nagging virus-induced ailments, such as the common cold and winter vomiting.
Doctor Leo James and a team of researchers at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge discovered that antiviral antibodies can actually enter a cell after the cell has been infected, unlike what was previously thought, and is recognized by a naturally-occurring protein in the cell, which eventually leads to the virus being eliminated within a couple of hours.
It is theorized that the protein could be used in nasal sprays to help eliminate the viruses behind the common cold, considering rhinoviruses are one of the handful of viruses susceptible to this kind of treatment.
(via BBC News and The Independent)
