This inverse association is consistent with previous studies of HBV mono-infection, which demonstrated that lower sPD-1 levels are an effective predictor of HBeAg seroclearance (Xia et al., 2020; Chu et al., 2022) and spontaneous HBsAg seroclearance in inactive CHB patients with undetectable HBV DNA (Hu et al., 2022). The gene discussed is HOXD13; the disease is infection.