Because corticosteroids are well-known to induce IL-1 Receptor Antagonist (IL-1RA) transcription (Levine et al., 1996), which binds to both IL-1α and IL-1β, we believed that the administration of corticosteroids was able to reduce IL-1α release, which we demonstrated to be responsible for TGF-β release during the exacerbation phase of COPD (Colarusso et al., 2019). Here, IL1B is linked to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.