MUC5AC drives COPD exacerbation severity through amplification of virus-induced airway inflammation

Aran Singanayagam; Joseph Footitt; Benjamin T Kasdorf; Matthias Marczynski; Michael T Cross; Lydia J Finney; Maria-Belen Trujillo Torralbo; Maria Calderazzo; Jie Zhu; Julia Aniscenko; Thomas B Clarke; Philip L Molyneaux; Nathan W Bartlett; Miriam F Moffatt; William O Cookson; Jadwiga Wedzicha; Christopher M Evans; Oliver Lieleg; Patrick Mallia; Sebastian L Johnston

The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the . https://doi.org/10.1101/706804 doi: bioRxiv preprint A significant increase in sputum MUC5AC from baseline was observed in RV-infected COPD subjects at day 3 post-infection with no increase observed in healthy control subjects ( Fig.2b) . MUC5AC was increased in patients with COPD versus healthy controls on days 3, 9 and 12 post-infection (Fig.2b) . There was no significant change in MUC5B from baseline at any time point in patients with COPD or healthy controls and no difference in MUC5B was observed between these two groups during infection (Supplementary Fig.1b) . MUC5AC peak concentrations were increased in patients with COPD compared to baseline with no significant change observed in healthy individuals and peak MUC5AC concentrations were higher in COPD compared to healthy subjects (Fig.2c) . MUC5B peak concentrations were increased in both groups of volunteers when compared to baseline with no significant difference observed between the two groups ( Supplementary Fig.1c ).