NEIL2 and COVID-19: Therefore, we analyzed NEIL2 transcript levels in blood cells isolated from COVID-19 patients admitted to the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) hospital by reverse transcriptase real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR), and indeed found a significantly lower levels of NEIL2 in COVID-19 patients (n = 20) compared to that of healthy individuals (n = 23) (Fig. 1k, left panel).