Role of hemagglutinin-esterase protein in SARS-CoV-2 infection?

Dear Editor,

In a published mini‐review article in Cell Biology International, the authors considered hemagglutinin‐esterase (HE) as a structural protein of SARS‐CoV‐2 which has roles in the entry and release processes of virus (Tantuoyir & Rezaei, 2020). Coronaviruses are divided in four genera including alpha‐, beta‐, gamma‐, and delta‐coronavirus (Yang & Leibowitz, 2015). The five subgenera are recognized within the genus beta‐coronavirus (Yang & Leibowitz, 2015). SARS‐CoV‐2 as a beta‐coronavirus in lineage B causes COVID‐19 (Letko et al., 2020). It encodes four structural proteins: (1) the spike‐surface glycoprotein, (2) the small envelope protein, (3) the membrane glycoprotein, and (4) the nucleocapsid protein, also several nonstructural proteins (Yin, 2020); however, other betacoronaviruses in lineage A such as HCoV‐OC43, HCoV‐HKU1, BCoV, and MHV encode HE (Yang & Leibowitz, 2015). As a result, according to evidence, the genome of SARS‐CoV‐2 lacks the HE gene, therefore, HE cannot have a role in SARS‐CoV‐2 replication.