Age-linked immune endotypes are associated with COPD risk

In a study of human adults, researchers investigated age-associated immune biomarkers to identify distinct inflammatory profiles linked to early chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) risk. A discovery cohort of 439 healthy adults helped identify four cytokines—IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, and IL-12p70—that correlated with age and were elevated in individuals at high risk for COPD. In a validation cohort of 89 community-dwelling adults, unsupervised clustering separated participants into three groups: high-, moderate-, and low-inflammatory endotypes. High-risk status, defined by questionnaire scores despite preserved lung function, was present in all 13 adults in the high-inflammatory cluster, 89.7% of the 29 moderate-inflammatory adults, and 35.6% of the 45 low-inflammatory adults. After adjusting for age and sex, the high-inflammatory endotype showed an odds ratio of 17.2 (95% CI: 4.7–63.0) and the moderate-inflammatory endotype showed an odds ratio of 7.1 (95% CI: 2.2–22.8) for high-risk status compared to the low-inflammatory endotype.