Remarkably, the role of NRIR in the type I IFN pathway has been confirmed by demonstrations of an upregulated expression of this lncRNA in several diseases characterized by activation of the IFN response, such as systemic sclerosis (SSc) (Mariotti et al., 2019; Servaas et al., 2021), primary Sjögren’s syndrome (Peng et al., 2020), and systemic lupus erythematosus (Cao et al., 2019). This evidence concerns the gene IFNA1 and systemic sclerosis.