I read this in the 1980s, though it might have been published much earlier (I had a huge stack of paperbacks from an older cousin).
Basically, the scientist protagonist (plus maybe a collaborator) finds a way to cure the common cold, and tests it on himself. (The scientist and his colleague are men; the only woman I recall is his wife, of no specific occupation, who has a cold. This likely indicates a story written pre-1960.)
It works; he breathes with complete ease - and discovers that everyone and everything around him stink. Stale smoke, stale perfume, body odor, food on people's breath, he can suddenly smell everything, and he hates it. And of course everybody else is completely oblivious to this.
In the end he finally manages to engineer a stronger cold virus so he can get his cold back and live in relative comfort.