Elevated PLAUR is observed in the airway epithelium of asthma patients and blocking improves barrier integrity.

"CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT Dr Michael Portelli, Dr Sangita Bhaker, Dr Vincent Pang, Prof David O. Bates, Prof Dominick Shaw & Prof Simon R. Johnson declare no conflict of interest. IS reports a collaboration grant from Boehringer Ingelheim related to this work and collaboration grants from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Funding and Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council not related to this work. Prof. Andrew P. Mazar owns equity in Monopar Therapeutics, the company that owns the rights to ATN‐658. Andrew P. Mazar is also a co‐inventor on multiple patents that cover ATN‐658 and related molecule composition of matter."

"We agree that there are no Acknowledgments required for this manuscript. This work was supported by grants from Asthma UK (08/017, 10/006), Nottingham Hospitals Charity Research Fund and by STEPS scholarship (MAP) in part by the European Union—European Social Fund (ESF) under Operational Program II—Cohesion Policy 2007–2013 and the Medical Research Council (to SRJ). British Heart Foundation (BHF PG/13/85/30536)."