Caco-2 and Calu-3 cells have been used previously in SARS-CoV-2 research over primary, normal cell lines due to their expression of ACE2 receptors as well as the protease TMPRSS2, which make them permissible to infection (Mautner et al., 2022; Kumar et al., 2021; Baczenas et al., 2021). Here, TMPRSS2 is linked to infection.