%0 Journal Article %A Dijkman, Ronald %A Jebbink, Maarten F. %A Deijs, Martin %A Milewska, Aleksandra %A Pyrc, Krzysztof %A Buelow, Elena %A van der Bijl, Anna %A van der Hoek, Lia %T Replication-dependent downregulation of cellular angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 protein expression by human coronavirus NL63 %D 2012 %J Journal of General Virology, %V 93 %N 9 %P 1924-1929 %@ 1465-2099 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/vir.0.043919-0 %I Microbiology Society, %X Like severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), human coronavirus (HCoV)-NL63 employs angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) as a receptor for cellular entry. SARS-CoV infection causes robust downregulation of cellular ACE2 expression levels and it has been suggested that the SARS-CoV effect on ACE2 is involved in the severity of disease. We investigated whether cellular ACE2 downregulation occurs at optimal replication conditions of HCoV-NL63 infection. The expression of the homologue of ACE2, the ACE protein not used as a receptor by HCoV-NL63, was measured as a control. A specific decrease for ACE2 protein level was observed when HCoV-NL63 was cultured at 34 °C. Culturing the virus at the suboptimal temperature of 37 °C resulted in low replication of the virus and the effect on ACE2 expression was lost. We conclude that the decline of ACE2 expression is dependent on the efficiency of HCoV-NL63 replication, and that HCoV-NL63 and SARS-CoV both affect cellular ACE2 expression during infection. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/vir.0.043919-0