CD33 and chronic hepatitis B virus infection: It had been demonstrated that a SIGLEC-3 SNP is significantly associated with an increased risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) among the chronic hepatitis B patients, and the hepatitis B virus activates SIGLEC-3 to induce immunosuppression, thus indicating that the blockade of SIGLEC-3 may provide an effective therapeutic strategy to lower the risk of HCC in the patients with chronic hepatitis B infection [35].