SubPopulations and InteRmediate Outcome Measures In COPD Study (SPIROMICS) supports the prospective collection and analysis of phenotypic, biomarker, genetic, genomic, and clinical data from participants with COPD for the purpose of identifying subpopulations and intermediate outcome measures. SPIROMICS is funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the COPD Foundation and is coordinated by the Collaborative Studies Coordinating Center at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the third leading cause of death in the US. No medical therapies reduce mortality or slow disease progression, in part because COPD is a heterogeneous syndrome, which hinders the development of targeted therapies. The SPIROMICS study enrolled 2,982 participants into a 3-year longitudinal study of current and former smokers and never-smoking controls, phenotyping them clinically, radiographically and biologically to identify sources of heterogeneity in COPD at twelve SPIROMICS Clinical Centers (in Winston-Salem, NC; Ann Arbor, MI; San Francisco, CA; Los Angeles, CA; New York City, NY; Salt Lake City, UT; Iowa City, IA; Baltimore, MD; Denver, CO; Philadelphia, PA; Birmingham, AL; and Chicago, IL) across the US.
Molecular fingerprinting and extensive phenotyping are being performed to identify disease subpopulations and to identify and validate surrogate markers of disease severity which will be useful as intermediate outcome measures for future clinical trials. Secondary aims are to clarify the natural history of COPD, to develop bioinformatic resources that will enable the utilization and sharing of data in studies of COPD and related diseases, and to create a collection of clinical, biomarker, radiographic, and genetic data that can be used by external investigators for other studies of COPD.
The latest funding will extend participant follow-up by adding a new clinical visit and two sub studies (bronchoscopy and exacerbation) to inform us about three new aims of interest. The overarching premise underlying these aims is that COPD is a consequence of a heterogeneous group of molecular phenotypes that underlie distinct radiographic (anatomic) and clinical (physiologic) phenotypes; and that linking molecular phenotypes to specific radiographic and clinical phenotypes will identify key biological factors associated with disease exacerbation and progression.Our ultimate goal is to enable targeted approaches to COPD treatment and disease modification that are based on the heterogeneous biological pathways that underlie COPD progression and exacerbations.