In pHNEpC-1 and pHNEpC-2 nasal epithelial cells (as reported previously [27]), infection of lentivirus encoding YME1L shRNA (“kdYME1L”) similarly downregulated YME1L mRNA expression (Fig. 3L), but failed to provoke apoptosis, as the TUNEL-stained nuclei percentage remained unaltered (Fig. 3M). Here, YME1L1 is linked to infection.