IL1B and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: The initial focus is on the proinflammatory cytokine IL-1β because it plays a significant role in initiating and maintaining airway inflammation (Fu et al., 2015; Guo et al., 2022; Zou et al., 2017) and increased IL-1β secretion has been reported in both stable and exacerbated COPD (Bafadhel et al., 2011; Pauwels et al., 2011).