Interestingly, a recent study showed that mild heat treatment destabilized the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (also known as Nsp12 protein) encoded by SARS-COV2 virus in a mechanism mediated by ZNF598-dependent ubiquitination of Nsp12 (Maimaitiyiming et al., 2022), suggesting a novel mechanism of action of ZNF598 in cellular response to viral infection and a new way to interfere with SARS-COV2 replication and combat the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic. The gene discussed is ZNF598; the disease is viral infectious disease.