Moreover, it has been shown that the HBV e antigen helps the virus to escape the host immune response by inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome activation [60], while the hepatitis B core antigen seems to have a pro-inflammatory role by upregulating the expression and activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome, suggesting that the inflammasome is primed and activated in the first phases of infection [61]. This evidence concerns the gene NLRP3 and infection.