ABCA1 and hepatocellular carcinoma: ABCA1 was shortlisted for functional studies as (a) ABCA1 transcript levels were significantly down-regulated in our microarray data from hepatocytes expressing HBV-miR-3; (b) ABCA1 was identified as a host gene harboring potential HBV-miR-3 binding sites using two algorithms; and (c) Analysis of publicly available datasets (n = 3 datasets), indicates that ABCA1 transcript levels were significantly lower in liver biopsies from HBV-infected cases (compared to uninfected controls) and in HBV-related HCC (as compared with the paired non-tumor liver samples).