TNF and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: These are all pro-inflammatory mediators playing a key role in the pathophysiology of COPD; CXCL8 and LTB4 acting as neutrophil chemoattractants (Pease and Sabroe, 2002; Woolhouse et al., 2002), TNFα causing amplification of inflammation (Barnes, 2016), MMP-9 being a protease involved in airways remodeling (Beeh et al., 2003; Churg et al., 2012), CCL2 and CCL4 activating C-C chemokine receptor type 2 (CCR2) and type 5 (CCR5) and contributing to inflammatory cell recruitment (Deshmane et al., 2009; Costa et al., 2016).