Mucus Plugging as a Treatable Trait Across the Asthma–COPD Spectrum: The Role of Type 2 Cytokine Blockade and Quantitative Imaging
Mucus plugging meets the definition of a treatable trait: it can be measured with CT scoring, it matters clinically, and it responds to T2 cytokine blockade. Adding mucus plug assessment to routine clinical evaluation, together with mucolytic strategies where needed, could move treatment decisions from empirical to biology-based across the asthma-COPD spectrum. Further studies are needed to confirm that mucus plug scoring works as a biomarker of treatment response in COPD and to test whether combining biologics with mucolytics improves outcomes.
Authors
- Loreta Di Michele
- Davide Fontana (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4262-8368)
- David Selvaggio
- Veronica Ojetti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8953-0707)
- Simone Ielo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-2838-423X)
- Matteo Siciliano (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4913-5796)
- Pier‐Valerio Mari (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3307-217X)
- Alberto Rícci (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1718-1587)
- Lorenzo Carriera (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-2538-1278)
- Angelo Coppola
Institutions
- Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (IT)
- Aurelia Hospital (IT)
- ASL Roma (IT)
- Saint Camillus International University of Health and Medical Sciences (IT)
- Ospedale San Filippo Neri (IT)
- Ospedale San Carlo (IT)
- Ospedale Cristo Re (IT)
- Ospedale Santa Maria (IT)
- Ospedale San Donato (IT)
- Campus Bio Medico University Hospital (IT)
- Carlo Forlanini Hospital (IT)
- Misericordia University (US)
- Sapienza University of Rome (IT)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Biomedicines
- Published
- 2026-04-14
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines14040891
- Primary Topic
- Asthma and respiratory diseases
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00