Surprisingly, intrahepatic HDV RNA was cleared after infection at comparable kinetics among normal, homozygous Prdkcscid and IFNα/βR1-/- hNTCP-Tg mice; this suggested that the clearance of HDV infection in hNTCP-Tg mice was either due to the activation of innate immune response or accumulation of large delta antigen that suppressed HDV RNA replication. The gene discussed is CXCL11; the disease is infection.