Viruses, infectious particles consisting of nucleic acid packaged in a protein coat (the capsid), are difficult to resist. Unable to reproduce outside a living cell, viruses reproduce only by subverting the genetic mechanisms of a host cell. In one kind of viral life cycle, the virus first binds to the cell's surface, then penetrates the cell and sheds its capsid. The exposed viral nucleic acid produces new viruses from the contents of the cell. Finally, the cell releases the viral progeny. The human body responds to a viral infection by producing antibodies: complex and highly specific proteins that selectively bind to foreign molecules such as viruses. An antibody can either interfere with a virus' ability to bind to a cell, or can prevent it from releasing its nucleic acid. Unfortunately, the common cold, produced most often by rhinoviruses, is intractable to antiviral defense. Humans have difficulty resisting colds because rhinoviruses are so diverse, including at least 100 strains. The strains differ most in the molecular structure of the proteins in their capsids. Since disease-fighting antibodies bind to the capsid, an antibody developed to protect against one rhinovirus strain is useless against other strains. Different antibodies must be produced for each strain. A defense against rhinoviruses might nonetheless succeed by exploiting hidden similarities among the rhinovirus strains. For example, most rhinovirus strains bind to the same kind of molecule (delta-receptors) on a cell's surface when they attack human cells.  Professor Colonno, taking advantage of these common receptors, devised a strategy for blocking the attachment of rhinoviruses to their appropriate receptors. Rather than searching for an antibody that would bind to all rhinoviruses. Proffesor Ｃｏｌｏｎｎｏ realized that an antibody binding to the common receptors of a human cell would prevent rhinoviruses from initiating an infection.   Because human cells normally do not develop antibodies to components of their own cells, Colonno injected human cells into mice, which did produce an antibody to the common receptor. In isolated human cells, this antibody proved to be extraordinarily effective at thwarting the rhinovirus. Moreover, when the antibody was given to chimpanzees, it inhibited rhinoviral growth, and in humans it lessened both the severity and duration of cold symptoms.