Congruently, and similar to our in vitro metabolomics data (see Fig. 1), polyamine-regulating SAT1 was significantly increased in ciliated cells of patients with low SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations (Fig. 3d), possibly facilitating downregulation of TFEB-regulated genes like CD63. Interestingly, in ciliated cells of patients with high SARS-CoV-2 RNA levels, ISGs were upregulated, whereas SAT1 showed low expression levels and autophagy genes were comparably expressed or moderately upregulated, the latter being equivalent to early-deceased COVID-19 patients (see Fig. 3c). Here, CD63 is linked to COVID-19.