Autoimmunity in airways disease
Symposium Chairs: G. Anderson (Parkville, Australia), M. Cosio (Padova, Italy)
Aims: The aims of this symposium are:
- to appreciate the clinical evidence for a role for an autoimmune component in patients with airways disease;
- to understand the cellular and molecular pathways that drive autoimmunity and tolerance to self proteins and how this may be defective in COPD, for example;
- to obtain an overview as to the potential for new therapeutic approaches in patients with an autoimmune component to their disease.