IFNA1 and systemic sclerosis: To verify whether the selected “IFN/viral” lncRNAs were effectively related to the IFN signature in an in vivo setting where the IFN pathway is known to play a pathogenetic role, the expression level of the 99 selected lncRNAs was then retrieved and analyzed from the transcriptomic profile of monocytes purified from the “definite SSc” (35) and “non-fibrotic SSc” cohorts of patients and matched healthy donors (Tables 1, 2).