Immortalized hSAECs: RSV Infection Model

hSAECs are immortalized primary human small airway epithelial cells [65 (link)] from ATCC (PCS-301-010, at passage 2). hSAECs were grown in SAGM small airway epithelial cell growth medium (Lonza, Walkersville, MD, USA) and used at passage 4. hSAECs undergo growth factor-induced cell-state transition [66 (link)] and maintain RSV-induced genomic and proteomic signatures representative of primary cells [27 (link)]. The human RSV long strain was grown in Hep-2 cells, prepared by sucrose cushion purification, tittered by methylcellulose plaque assay [26 (link),67 (link)] and quick-frozen until use. The selective IRE1α RNAse inhibitor KIRA8 (MedChemExpress, South Brunswick Township, NJ, USA) [68 (link)] was applied to the cells 2 h prior to RSV infection.