Woah – Irish Scientists May Have Just Found A Cure For The Common Cold

Throw away your tissues and feel free to head out without a coat on, heck start sleeping with wet hair if ya feel like it, because we're now seemingly closer than ever to a cure for the common cold.

Scientists from Trinity College are working with a team from the University of Melbourne and the US investigating how viruses cause disease in humans, and the results of their study have been published today in the scientific and medical journal Nature Communications.

University Times reports that Professor John O'Leary, the Chair of Pathology at Trinity College, said the discovery of a 1.5 billion-year-old cell process in plants that protects them from pathogens, such as those similar to a cold virus, could be applied to humans.

Basically, they're trying to find where a certain protein could be in humans that once "activated" suppresses the body's ability to fight off disease. All they have to do if find out how to de-activate it.

Research carried out on mice led to them creating a new prototype drug to treat these viral illnesses.

Professor John O'Leary said that “the findings of this international study are hugely important in terms of the fight against viral epidemics and pandemics. Standard anti-viral therapies in general target the virus directly."