kinin

noun

1. Any of various structurally related polypeptides of the autacoid family, such as bradykinin and kallikrein, that act locally to induce vasodilation and contraction of smooth muscle.

   “The kinin work comes at a time when "there has not been a whole lot of interest in the common cold," Dr. Couch said, adding that he believed scientists had begun to view cold research as "a hopeless area."”

   “Indeed, it’s possible to create the full storm of cold symptoms with no cold virus at all, but only a potent cocktail of the so-called inflammatory mediators that the body makes itself[,] among them, cytokines, kinins, prostaglandins and interleukins, powerful little chemical messengers that cause the blood vessels in the nose to dilate and leak, stimulate the secretion of mucus, activate sneeze and cough reflexes and set off pain in our nerve fibers.”