"Does it cure the common cold?" I have some experience in medicine for 30 years but no expert on this. It seems to me that it boils down to whether the virus in question (in this case, the common cold viruses) have a galectin fold. There are about 300 viruses estimated to cause "the common cold." Many are in the rhinovirus class but there are some colds caused by coronaviruses (not the SARS recent Covid virus). Thus you get mild colds and "bad colds" depending upon the type of virus you caught. Read this section of the PR carefully:
"“We used Nuclear Magnetic Resonance imaging to engineer / optimize a carbohydrate structure ideally suited to neutralize the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Before this discovery, neutralizing antibodies were only able to target the tip of the spike proteins of viruses which rapidly mutate, but after this discovery we found out that carbohydrates are able to neutralize viruses by binding to the galectin fold. The galectin fold represents a conserved structure on the spike protein virtually incapable of mutation, therefore it opens up a whole new field of research in Glycovirology. We believe a large number of viruses contain this galectin binding region on their spike proteins offering a widely druggable target that could be easily tested in a lab setting."
So the key is, does the common cold have a galectin fold? But the part I like the most about this new drug is the "galectin fold is virtually incapable of mutation" part. That means no chasing a new virus mutation every time you turn around with a different drug. If this ProLectin-M drug does what they say it does, big Pharma is NOT going to be happy. It will neutralize (no pun intended) a lot of drugs out there (Paxlovid, monoclonal antibody treatments, etc.) and big Pharma will lose a lot money if this drug works. A big IF for sure. But also keep in mind as some on here have alluded to, these drug trials take a LONG time to do and if you have no patience or don't have a long investment horizon, you are in the wrong place. The FDA has a way of stringing these things out with requests for this, that and the other thing during the trials. "Oh, this patient got shingles while they were on the trial? Oh, maybe the drug caused that. No? Prove it, etc." I've seen it happen and further I was part of one of those trials collecting data for the approval process...... My thoughts FWIW
