Downregulation of the expression of genes encoding mitochondrial proteins is broadly seen in infection of DNA viruses, including modified vaccinia virus Ankara strain (MVA), or RNA viruses, including measles virus (MeV), RSV and IAV (Sato et al. 2021; Ye et al. 2021). Human cytomegalovirus (hCMV) transcribed a non-coding Beta2.7 RNA which interacts with mitochondrial respiratory chain complex I and inhibits host cell apoptosis and downregulates mitochondrial activity, thus enhancing viral replication (Combs et al. 2020). Here, NDUFV1 is linked to infection.