Among the downregulated genes, interleukin-32 (IL-32) was chosen for further study, because the cytokine IL-32 has been demonstrated to facilitate the growth and migration of HCC cells, and the increase of IL-32 in HCC cells is relevant to HBV infection (Pan et al., 2011; Kang et al., 2012; Zhao et al., 2018). The gene discussed is IL32; the disease is hepatocellular carcinoma.