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Fresh Insights into Disease Etiology and the Role of Microbial Pathogens

  • Scleroderma (J Varga, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Pathogens have been implicated in the initiation and/or promotion of systemic sclerosis (scleroderma, SSc); however, no evidence was found to substantiate the direct contribution to this disease in past years. Recently, significant advances have been made in understanding the role of the innate immune system in SSc pathogenesis, supporting the idea that pathogens might interact with host innate immune-regulatory responses in SSc. In light of these findings, we review the studies that identified the presence of pathogens in SSc, along with studies on pathogens implicated in driving the innate immune dysregulation in SSc. The goal of this review is to illustrate how these pathogens, specifically viruses, may play important role both as triggers of the innate immune system, and critical players in the development of SSc disease.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Paul Haines for the critical proofreading of the manuscript.

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  1. Arthritis Center, Department of Rheumatology, Boston University, 72 East Concord Street, E501, Boston, MA, 02118, USA

    G. Alessandra Farina

  2. Institute Pasteur-Fondazione Cenci Bolognetti, Department of Experimental Medicine, “Sapienza”, University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Antonella Farina

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Antonella Farina and G. Alessandra Farina declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This study was supported by the NIH-NIAMS grant 1R03AR062721-01 and Scleroderma Foundation Established investigator (G.A.F).

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Scleroderma

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Farina, A., Farina, G.A. Fresh Insights into Disease Etiology and the Role of Microbial Pathogens. Curr Rheumatol Rep 18, 1 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11926-015-0552-x

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