Fig. 5.

OCLN overexpression facilitates SARS-CoV-2 infection. (A–D) Vero-E6 or A549-hACE2 cells were infected with lentivirus expressing hOCLN. After 48 h, cells were prepared for RT-qPCR (A) and western blot (B) to detect OCLN expression at mRNA and protein levels. In the control group, because of the cross-reaction of OCLN antibody with both monkey and human OCLN, monkey OCLN also can be detected by western blot. (C) Virus binding and (D) virus internalization assays on Vero-E6 and A549-hACE2 cells were performed as described above. (E–H) Vero-E6 or A549-hACE2 cells in which OCLN was overexpressed were infected with SARS-CoV-2-mNG virus at an MOI of 0.01 for 24 h, and images (E) were captured with EVOS™ M5000 Imaging System; SARS-CoV-2-mNG-positive cells (F) and cell numbers for each syncytium (G) were calculated, and virus yield (H) was determined by the TCID₅₀ assay.