We first evaluated the impact of targeting autophagy both genetically (by viral infection with two vectors encoding Atg7 short hairpin RNA- shAtg7#1 and shAtg7#2) and pharmacologically (by using an inhibitor of ULK1 named SBI-0206965 and chloroquine-CQ) on both 975A2 and 9464D cells grown as 3D spheroids. Here, ULK1 is linked to viral infectious disease.