SLPI and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: Our data from preclinical models would slightly favour the use of neutrophil elastase or NET-targeting therapies over DNAse administration, since the former led to beneficial modulation of SLPI, an antimicrobial peptide that is degraded by neutrophil elastase during COPD exacerbations to promote secondary bacterial infections38 However, the direct implications of this effect requires formal testing using virus-bacterial co-infection mouse models and ultimately human intervention studies will be required for definitive evaluation.