NEIL1 and COVID-19: Compared to mock-transduced and uninfected cells, we observed comparable NEIL2 mRNA expression in rNEIL2 transduced cells, whereas the NEIL2 transcript level in mock- or NEIL1-transduced cells was significantly decreased in response to CoV-2 infection (Fig. 4a), which is consistent with our earlier observation of downregulated NEIL2 expression in CoV-2-infected hamsters and postmortem specimens of COVID-19 patients.