Rhinoviruses (RVs) are the most common respiratory pathogens burdening the human population.
The RV disease spectrum is much broader than the common cold, from acute otitis media to
pneumonia and from wheezy bronchitis to severe asthma exacerbation. The current total number of
RV types is 169, divided into three different species RV-A, RV-B, and RV-C within the Enterovirus
genus in Picornaviridae family. They are small icosahedral viruses with a capsid of 60 copies each of
four structural proteins and a positive-strand RNA genome. Nucleic acid detection, most commonly
by RT-PCR, is the only method for universal detection of all RV types.