Translations:Zinc and the common cold/10/en

Mechanism of action

The hypothesized mechanism of action by which zinc reduces the severity and/or duration of cold symptoms is the suppression of nasal inflammation and the direct inhibition of rhinoviral receptor binding and rhinoviral replication in the nasal mucosa. Zinc has been known for many years to have an effect on cold viruses in the laboratory. In the arteriviridae and coronaviridae families of virus that also cause the common cold, in vitro studies found that zinc ionophores block the replication of those viruses in cell culture.