To examine whether sC69∗ attenuates ISGs expression at early stage or late stage (IFNs mediated signaling) of ISGs induction, we stimulated WT and sC69∗ + pLMS infected HepG2-NTCP cells with 500 U/ml IFNβ during the infection and measured the expression of pgRNA, HBV total RNA and ISGs levels by RT-qPCR (Figure 4A). This evidence concerns the gene IFNB1 and infection.