Because SLC7A1 is a direct target of miR122 in vitro [17] and miR122 expression levels arefrequently decreased in HCC tissues [6,18, 19], we first analyzed the genome-wide mRNA and miRNA profiles ofclinical HCC tumors infected with chronic hepatitis B (n= 192) and hepatitis C (n = 89) using the publicdata [20–23] to determine the correlation in the expression levelsof between miR122 and SLC7A1 in clinical HCC samples. Here, SLC7A1 is linked to chronic hepatitis B virus infection.