Systemic sclerosis

Systemic sclerosis is a complex orphan disease affecting the immune system and various organ systems throughout the body, including the lung, heart, kidneys, liver, and gastrointestinal tract. It is characterized by skin fibrosis, vasculopathy, and peripheral nerve damage. Common symptoms include Raynaud's phenomenon and fatigue, which are two non-specific symptoms common in autoimmune diseases. Some patients with systemic sclerosis also develop interstitial lung disease. Patients with systemic sclerosis frequently display overlapping symptoms with other autoimmune diseases, such as myositis or rheumatoid arthritis (Volkmann ER et al. (2023)). As with other autoimmune diseases, systemic sclerosis disproportionally affects women, with significantly higher prevalence (up to three times) in females compared to males (Peoples C et al. (2016)).

Differential Abundance Analysis Results

This section presents the results of the differential protein abundance analysis, visualized through a volcano plot and summarized in the accompanying table for all three comparisons: 1) disease vs. healthy samples, 2) disease vs. diseases from the same class, and 3) disease vs. all other diseases.

Disease vs Healthy
Disease vs Class
Disease vs All other