FIGURE 3.

Proviral effect of VCaP‐sEVs on SARS‐CoV‐2 infection in TMPRSS2‐expressing cells. (A) Effect of VCaP‐sEV preincubation on SARS‐CoV‐2 infection of TMPRSS2‐expressing Calu‐3 cells, and TMPRSS2‐non‐expressing VERO‐E6 and A549 cells on intracellular viral RNA amounts assessed by RT‐qPCR 48 h post‐infection. Viral particles were incubated with 10⁹ VCaP‐sEVS or PBS at a final MOI of 0.1. Results were normalized to 18S rRNA or GAPDH mRNA, then to control without VCaP‐sEVs incubation (black bars). Relative quantities are expressed as mean ± SEM of two independent experiments. (B) Effect of VCaP‐sEV preincubation on SARS‐CoV‐2 variant Alpha infection of Calu‐3 cells. (C) Time‐of‐addition experiment showing the effect of VCaP‐sEV incubation prior to infection, at the time of infection or 2 h post‐infection. **p < 0.01