Furthermore, pro-inflammatory transcription factors that are related to the NF-kappa B signalling pathway (NFKB2 or RELB)44 or transcription factors associated with COPD (SNAI1, TWIST1, TWIST245, STAT446, TBX21 (synonym: T-bet)47) were found upregulated (Supplementary Table 1). Here, NFKB2 is linked to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.