Extract
Chronic bacterial infection may play an important role in the progression of COPD [1] with the pulmonary inflammatory response driven by neutrophils [2]. Neutrophil elastase (NE) is a serine protease stored and secreted by neutrophils [3] and is an essential defence against bacterial infection [4].
Abstract
NEATstik is a point of care test which gives a qualitative result on whether neutrophil elastase is elevated from sputum in 10 min with minimal processing and could be of benefit in clinical practice http://bit.ly/2SohUhf
Footnotes
Conflict of interest: S.J. Thulborn has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: J.L. Cane has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: C. Connolly has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: C. Borg has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: K.L. Moffitt has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: D. Ribeiro is an employee of ProAxsis Limited, which manufactures both the NEATstik test and the ProteaseTag Active Neutrophil Elastase immunoassay.
Conflict of interest: C. Robb has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: R.E.K. Russell reports personal fees from Boehringer Ingelheim Ltd, Chiesi Pharma Ltd, GlaxoSmithKline Ltd and Teva Uk Ltd, grants from Circassia Ltd, grants and personal fees from AstraZeneca Ltd, outside the submitted work.
Conflict of interest: M. Bafadhel reports grants from NIHR, during the conduct of the study; personal fees and non-financial support for advisory board work, educational symposia and travel to conferences from AZ, BI, Chiesi, GSK, Novartis and Teva, outside the submitted work.
Support statement: This work was funded by the Medical Research Council, National Institute for Health Research (Respiratory Theme), Oxfordshire Health Services Research Committee, Wellcome Trust and Academy of Medical Sciences. Funding information for this article has been deposited with the Crossref Funder Registry.
- Received December 16, 2019.
- Accepted January 30, 2020.
- Copyright ©ERS 2020