COPD-like airway inflammation during RSV infection of older volunteers: INFLAMMAGE

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Based on extensive preclinical and clinical research, we hypothesise that RSV disease represents a dysregulated and over-exuberant inflammatory response to infection. Steroids have limited efficacy, and identification of druggable inflammatory pathways in severe RSV disease would be of great potential value. There are promising clinical assets ready for investigation, however, our ability to test novel therapeutics is limited by the currently available models of viral disease and clinical endpoints tied to disease processes. Observational studies of natural infection are constrained by sampling, timing and access. We therefore propose to extend the experimental human RSV infection studies established at Imperial College to investigate the pulmonary response to RSV infection in older adult non-smokers and smokers, with the development of novel clinical endpoints which can then be used to evaluate the possible impact of treatment with validated novel anti-inflammatory agents from GSK in human RSV disease and therefore in COPD.