Language

English

Publication Date

7-18-2025

Journal

iScience

DOI

10.1016/j.isci.2025.112966

PMID

40687815

PMCID

PMC12274847

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

6-19-2025

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-print

Abstract

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a severe, progressive, and heterogeneous disease with a poor outcome. Inflammation plays a central role in disease pathogenesis; however, the interplay between immune changes and disease heterogeneity has been difficult to unravel. We performed a multilevel immunoinflammatory characterization of patients with COPD using flow cytometry, cytokine profiling, single-cell, or spatial transcriptomics in combination with machine learning algorithms. Our cross-cohort analysis demonstrated shared skewing of immune profiles in COPD lungs toward adaptive immune cells. We furthermore identified a subgroup of patients with COPD with a distinct immune profile, characterized by increased antigen-presenting cells, mast cells, and CD8+ cells, and circulating IL-1β, IFN-β, and GM-CSF, that were associated with increased emphysema severity and decreased gas exchange parameters independent of their GOLD-stage. Our findings suggest that unbiased immune profiling can refine disease classification and reveal inflammation-driven disease subtypes with potential relevance for prognosis and treatment strategies.

Keywords

respiratory medicine, machine learning

Published Open-Access

yes

fx1.jpg (358 kB)
Graphical Abstract

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.