By comparing patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with a normal group, Gao et al. found that IL1B and CCL2 were the most upregulated genes in COPD small airway epithelial cells and IL1B is an airway inflammatory molecule in COPD (Yi et al., 2018). The gene discussed is IL1B; the disease is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.