IL7R and pulmonary emphysema: Consistent with the fundamental principle of GOLD that any clinically feasible COPD diagnostics should be simple and applicable worldwide [15], and in light of the seemingly impracticability of the COPDGene’s proposal, which is largely dependent on the relatively expensive CT imaging modality, in low-income countries [15,24], considering its ability to recapitulate CT evidence of airway inflammation and/or emphysema [3,14], the present study proposes the clinical utility of lnc-IL7R expression as a surrogate biomarker of COPD based on its pathognomonic attribution as demonstrated herein.