Genome-wide association studies have shown polymorphisms in the NLRP3 gene to be linked with the development of ILDs such as asbestosis (rs35829419) (Franko et al., 2020), coal workers pneumoconiosis (rs1539019) (Ji et al., 2012), and silicosis (rs1539019 and rs34298354) (Weng et al., 2015); while specific NLRP3 polymorphisms have yet to be identified in SSc-ILD, further study in this arena could identify convergent molecular mechanisms linking divergent disease states. The gene discussed is NLRP3; the disease is systemic sclerosis.