IFNB1 and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: At baseline, in comparison to healthy smoker, the gene expression of STING, TBK1, and IFN-β were also significantly higher in smoker COPD by 4.7 fold (p<0.01), 1.2 fold, and 3.2 fold (p<0.01), respectively (Fig 1A–1C).