My experiments to understand how ZnCl2 inhibits rhinovirus replication have been thwarted by the finding that concentrations of the salt higher than 0.1 mM are toxic for cultured HeLa cells. The cells can tolerate 0.1 mM but not 0.2 mM ZnCl2. Last week I asked whether I could identify a concentration between 0.1 and 0.2 …
Recently I began experiments to understand how zinc inhibits rhinovirus replication, and I promised to document my findings on the pages of this blog. Here are the results of the second plaque assay. In the last experiment I confirmed the finding that 0.1 mM ZnCl2 inhibits plaque formation by rhinovirus type 1A. Based on the …
The title of this post should not come as a surprise to readers of virology blog – it was shown in 1974 that zinc could interfere with replication of rhinoviruses (see “Zinc and the common cold“). I am referring to the result of my first experiment to study the mechanism of zinc inhibition – something …
Shortly after I developed sore throat, cough, and congestion last week, a package of ‘Cold – Eeze’ materialized on my kitchen counter. The writing on the package of zinc-laden lozenges promised to ‘shorten your cold’, and noted that they were ‘clinically proven to reduce the duration of the common cold’. Do zinc lozenges have any …
During a discussion about blogging on the Coast to Coast Bio Podcast, it was suggested that science professors should spend more time writing about their research – by explaining what problems they are trying to solve, how they approach them, and why they are interesting. My goal here at virology blog is mainly to teach …
