IRF7 and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: The present study shows that actual human in situ anti-GRP78aa 246–260 IgG autoantibodies, isolated directly from the plasma of COPD patients, are not only highly associated with cIMT (Fig. 2), but also have biologically relevant effects on vascular endothelial cells, which notably include inducing these cells to increase their productions of IL-8 and IRF-7 (Fig. 5).