Small RNA Sequencing of Minor Salivary Glands of Sjögren''s syndrome

Sjögren''s syndrome is a complex autoimmune disease of the salivary gland with an unknown etiology, so a thorough characterization of the transcriptome would facilitate our understanding of the disease. We use small RNA sequencing of patients with Sjögren''s syndrome and healthy volunteers, primarily to identify and discover novel miRNA sequences that may play a role in the disease. We validated the presence of six previously unidentified miRNA sequences in patient samples and in several cell lines. One of the validated novel miRNAs shows promise as a biomarker for salivary function.