Inflammatory biomarkers and metabolomic profiling of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a community-based cross-sectional study in northeastern Taiwan

Abstract Background Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a heterogeneous inflammatory lung disease characterized by persistent airflow limitation and diverse clinical phenotypes. This study investigated circulating inflammatory cytokines and metabolomic profiles in patients with COPD and healthy controls in northeastern Taiwan. Methods This community-based cross-sectional study included 54 patients with COPD and 41 healthy controls. Circulating cytokines and 189 targeted metabolites were assessed. Benjamini–Hochberg false discovery rate (FDR) correction was applied for multiple testing. Firth penalized logistic regression was used to evaluate cytokine associations with COPD after adjustment for age, sex, smoking status, and body mass index. Results Patients with COPD were older and more frequently male and ever-smokers than controls. Among quantitatively reliable cytokines, interleukin-17 (IL-17), thymic stromal lymphopoietin, and interferon-γ (IFN-γ) differed significantly between groups after FDR correction. In multivariable Firth analyses, IL-17 (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 1.058; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.026–1.106) and IFN-γ (adjusted OR, 1.110; 95% CI, 1.047–1.213) remained associated with COPD, with consistent findings in sensitivity analyses. Metabolomic profiling identified alterations in amino acid and phospholipid metabolism, with six of the 11 originally selected metabolites remaining significant after FDR correction. Conclusions COPD was associated with selective circulating cytokine and metabolic alterations. IL-17 and IFN-γ showed the most consistent associations with COPD after multivariable adjustment and sensitivity analyses. These exploratory findings require validation in larger, better-balanced independent cohorts.