It is necessary to develop small-molecule human cGAS or STING agonists as immunotherapeutic drugs for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B. Daunorubicin (DNR), a topoisomerase II poison, triggers an endogenous cGAS-dependent innate immune response and subsequently inhibits the production of HBV in NKNT-3/NTCP cells (Imai et al., 2018). The gene discussed is STING1; the disease is chronic hepatitis B virus infection.