Nonetheless, the transfection process, but not the natural infection course, cannot provide a comprehensive understanding of the complete viral cycle, in particular, the early stages of viral absorption, entry, and uncoating, etc. Notably, in the context of the identification of NTCP as the specific receptor for HBV and HDV infection, the exogenous expression of hNTCP in Huh7 and HepG2 cell lines confers susceptibility to HBV and HDV infection23,24,67, providing a more robust and efficient in vitro model to study the full viral cycle and virus-host interactions. The gene discussed is SLC10A1; the disease is infection.