Why do more people get it around the time when it gets cold? I can tell from personal experience I get cold symptoms when i don’t dress properly when it’s getting colder, or if I spend too much time in a room with AC in the summer. But it’s caused by a virus. What does the temperature have to do with the cold virus?
Also, is the virus wasn’t present would it be possible for us to spend time in cold weather without getting sick?
In: Biology
Hi! Virologist!
There are many types of “common cold” because it’s a generalized term that describe style generally icky sick feeling we associated with being sick with an upper respiratory virus. That means that there are many different kinds of viruses that collectively can be grouped as “common cold viruses.”
For some of these viruses we acquire them “more in winter” because we’re indoors and around each other more. But that’s a pretty weak explanation. It also has to do with humidity and with our bodies natural response to cold air in our sinus cavities (production of mucus).
However, a huge portion of common cold viruses belong to the picornavirus family. This is a very special type of virus because it’s the only family of viruses that bind to a cellular receptor that is not always expressed on the cell surface. In the case of this virus family they prefer to bind to a receptor that is only expressed during the repair of injured epithelial tissue. Cold weather (and the lack of humidity in cold air) triggers low level tissue injury and the expression of this receptor.
Hence, we are more likely to get sick with picornaviruses (the 200 or so that cause the common cold) when it is cold outside.
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