Seemingly, in HCV mono-infection, STAT2 and IRF7 gene expression showed around 1.5 fold upregulation with the progression of liver fibrosis i.e. when the comparison was set between CMV negative patients with early fibrosis vs CMV negative patients with late fibrosis (Fig. 3g,h, p = 0.04 and 0.03 for STAT2 and IRF7; respectively). Here, IRF7 is linked to infection.