PDCD1 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Notably, Pfister et al. utilized the scRNA-seq analysis on pre-clinical NASH-associated HCC mouse models and demonstrated that immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy targeting programmed death-1 (PD1) indeed exacerbated, rather than suppressed, NASH-HCC, unlike HCC of other etiology such as HBV infection [36].