The airway epithelium of children and adults with chronic diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), is both highly susceptible to viral infections and less able to clear viral infections compared to the airway epithelium of individuals without these diseases. The underlying reasons for this are not completely understood. It is believed that the airway epithelial cells from individuals with these chronic respiratory diseases are less able to produce the key antiviral cytokine interferon. However we have demonstrated that other antiviral responses such as cell death via apoptosis are important in combating viral infection within airway epithelial cells and are impaired in cells from asthmatics. We are using both submerged monolayer cell cultures and air-liquid interface, 3D cultures of primary airway epithelial cells from both the upper and lower airways to understand exactly the mechanisms of elevated viral susceptibility associated with asthma and COPD. We are particularly interested in susceptibility to infection with human metapneumovirus (hMPV) as a less recognised source of exacerbation for both asthma and COPD in adults. We are identifying specific host-viral interactions at the cellular level that may be further developed as treatment targets. As most respiratory viruses that exacerbate these conditions are not vaccine preventable, treatments to alleviate the effects of disease exacerbation by viruses is required.