A study using immunodeficient human-liver chimeric mouse models of HBV infection has shown that treatment with IFNα and siRNA can effectively suppress HBV antigens and RNAs, and both can restore the expression level of SMC5/6 in the liver, but viral markers rebound after stopping the drugs without new infection inhibition (18), suggesting a limitation of using IFN or siRNA alone. This evidence concerns the gene IFNA2 and infection.