Infection significantly increased the expression of ACE2, TMPRSS2, ADAM17, TGFB1, CTGF, VEGFA and FN1 but resulted in trends towards decreases in TIMP3 (p = 0.083) and AGF (p = 0.086) in A549 cells compared to control cells (Fig. 4b–i). Here, CCN2 is linked to infection.