Fig. 1.

From exposome to infectome via microbiome. “Exposome” describes all environmental factors which we are exposed to in a lifetime, both exogenous and endogenous, infectious and non-infectious. Environmental exposures are basically subdivided into infectious and non-infectious agents. The concept of “infectome” that we introduce describes the part of the exposome which refers to the collection of an individual’s exposures to infectious agents participating in the pathogenesis of autoimmune disease (“auto-infectome”). The infectome can be considered a part of “microbiome”, the collection of the microbial products which the human body is exposed to at a given time