Treatment of either healthy donor or COPD patients’ alveolar macrophages with p38 inhibitors SCIO469 and VX745 (Fig 4B), PI3K inhibitors NVS-PI3-2, NVS-PI3-3 or NVS-PI3-5 (Fig 4C) or the ROCK inhibitor PF4950834 (Fig 4D) resulted in similar levels of internalised bacteria when compared to the matched donor sample treated with vehicle controls. The gene discussed is MAPK14; the disease is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.