Development of cyclic peptide derivatives from the N-terminal region of LANA for targeting the nucleosome acidic patch

Abstract

Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is known to be a carcinogenic agent that causes AIDS-associated Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS). When KSHV infects host’s cells, one of the virus’s proteins, latency-associated nuclear antigen 1 (LANA), binds to the host’s nucleosomes to retain episomes and create latency circumstances. Although the infectious mechanism of KSHV is partly elucidated, the development of drug candidates for targeting KS is ongoing. In this study, we developed cyclic peptides corresponding to an N-terminal LANA sequence that disrupt the LANA–nucleosome interaction. The cyclic peptides showed a different secondary structure compared to their corresponding linear peptide derivatives, which suggests that our cyclization strategy imitates the N-terminal LANA binding conformation on nucleosomes.