However, an enrichment of HIC1 (hyper-methylated in cancer 1, a tumor-suppressor) binding sites was observed in the genes downregulated in MDV-infected splenocytes at 4 dpi in a previous study [16], and hence the authors suggested that MDV infection could block an anti-tumor mechanism long before the MDV oncogene (Meq) is expressed. Here, HIC1 is linked to neoplasm.