Characterization of the lung microbiome in sarcoidosis and healthy individuals with respect to host genotype

Sarcoidosis is a complex granulomatous disease with unknown etiology. Beside genetic factors like ANXA11, BTNL2 and HLA genes, an infectious agent has always been hypothesized to trigger the development of sarcoidosis, especially due to the pathological similarity between Sarcoidosis and mycobacterial infections like tuberculosis and leprosy. With usage of new sequencing technologies, enabling detection of unculturable bacteria, deep analysis of the sarcoidosis lung microbiome might highlight new risk factors for sarcoidosis progression. We hypothesize that the development of sarcoidosis correlates with a certai…