Patent ID: 8530180

Claim:
A method for identifying a smoker or an ex-smoker human being at risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), comprising: (i) obtaining from said human being a biological sample in which one or more nitroproteins result from an inflammatory response in the lung causing formation of nitric oxide (NO) free radical which reacts with superoxide anion (O 2 − ) to form nitrosant peroxynitrite anion (ONOO − ) which causes addition of nitrite (NO 2 ) to protein tyrosine residues; (ii) conducting proteolytic cleavage of said one or more nitroproteins in said sample with a suitable protease to generate nitropeptides; (iii) selectively identifying the presence or absence of the nitropeptide of SEQ ID 1 in said sample; and (iv) identifying the patient as being at risk of developing COPD if said nitropeptide of SEQ ID 1 is present in the sample.