Deep RNA sequencing of muscle tissue reveals absence of viral signatures in dermatomyositis. Deep RNA sequencing of muscle tissue reveals absence of viral signatures in dermatomyositis

Aiming to elucidate the pathogenesis of DM in skeletal muscle tissue, we used an untargeted high-throughput sequencing and host depletion approach to detect possible causative viruses. Skeletal muscle tissue from juvenile and adult DM patients and non-disease controls were analyzed using an unbiased high-throughput sequencing (HTS) approach to detect viral sequences. To further increase sequencing depth, a host depletion approach was applied. We included n=22 DM patients from three different institutions between 2008-2018.