Project description:Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) establishes a latent infection, in which most viral genes are silenced except a few latent proteins such as latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA). In latent viral chromatin, viral genes are poised to be transcribed, and KSHV LANA plays a major role in maintaining such transcription status. In the poised chromatins, LANA recruits cellular CHD4 (Chromodomain Helicase DNA binding protein 4) and suppresses inducible viral gene promoters. The CHD4 is known to regulate cell differentiation by restricting enhancer-promoter interactions and its mutation or overexpression deregulates the host cell transcription program and therefore associates with tumorigenesis. Here, we identified a putative CHD4 inhibitor from the LANA amino acid sequence from the LANA-CHD4 interaction surface. The small peptide interacts with CHD4 at its PHD domain with 14 nM KD (dissociation constant). The introduction of the peptide into the primary effusion lymphomas induces caspase-mediated CHD4 cleavage and subsequently triggered cell apoptosis and autophagy. A series of MTT assays demonstrated that the peptide preferentially killed lymphoma and leukemia cell lines at low micromolar concentrations, while peripheral mononuclear cells or adhesion cell lines were found to be more resistant to the peptide treatment. A monocyte cell differentiation model demonstrated that pre-treatment with the peptide at a low dose substantially enhanced transitioning into M2 macrophage (by reducing CHD4 occupancies from gene promoters), and globally altered the repertories of phorbol myristate acetate target genes in U937 cells. Finally, the PEL xenograft mouse model inhibited tumor growth without measurable side effects, and PEL cells isolated from xenograft tumors showed reduced CHD4 and LANA expression with terminally differentiated phenotype. We propose that the peptide isolated from the KSHV LANA sequence is biologically active and may function as a CHD4 inhibitor.

Project description:Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is a g-herpesvirus which persists as circular extrachromasomal DNA in the nucleus during latent infection. During latency a limited number of viral proteins are expressed, including LANA (latency-associated nuclear antigen). LANA is a multi-functional protein known to interact with transcriptional regulators and chromatin remodelers, and to regulate the LANA and RTA promoters. We hypothesized that LANA may contribute to the establishment of latency through controlling chromatinization and histone modification of KSHV episomes. We performed ChIP-seq analysis and correlated H3K4me3, H3K27me3, polII, and LANA occupancy of the KSHV genome at nucleotide resolution. Epigenetic marks were analyzed in BCBL-1 lymphoid cells and in telomerase-immortalized vein endothelial TIVE-LTC cells. We found that the transcription active mark H3K4me3, but not silencing mark H3K27me3, was enriched at KSHV regions where LANA is bound. Co-occupancy of LANA and H3K4 was also detected on 167 host genes, of which 89 are actively transcribed. By comparing LANA occupancy with the profiling of 43 transcription factors from ENCODE, a subset of transcription factors was enriched at regions where LANA is bound, including znf143, CTCF, and Stat1. These results indicate that LANA also plays a role in modulating expression of host genes. Co-immunoprecipitation of LANA with the H3K4 methyltransferase hSET1 suggests that LANA recruits hSET1 to specific loci on the viral genome, leading to H3K4 methylation and ensuring transcription of latency-associated genes. Host gene expression may be regulated by the same mechanism. LANA binding was correlated with the distribution in the latent KSHV genome of the transcription active histone modification H3K4me3, the silencing mark H3K27me3, and RNA polymerase II, using cells of lymphoid and endothelial origin. A similar analysis was done for the human genome. Biological replicates (BR) and technical replicates (TR) were included.

Project description:Enhancers play indispensable roles in cell proliferation and survival through spatiotemporally regulating gene transcription. In addition, active enhancers and super-enhancers often produce noncoding enhancer RNAs (eRNAs) that precisely control RNA polymerase II activity. Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is a human oncogenic gamma-2 herpesvirus that causes Kaposi’s sarcoma and lymphoproliferative diseases of B-cell origin such as primary effusion lymphoma (PEL). It is well characterized that KSHV utilizes host epigenetic and nuclear machineries to control the switch between two life cycles, latency and lytic replication. However, how KSHV impacts the host epigenome at different stages of viral life cycle is not well understood. Using the analysis of global run-on sequencing (GRO-seq) and chromatin-immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq), we profiled the dynamics of host transcriptional regulatory elements during latency and lytic replication of KSHV-infected PEL cells. This study showed that a number of critical host genes for KSHV latency, including MYC proto-oncogene, were under the control of super-enhancers and eRNAs that were globally repressed upon viral reactivation. A combination of circular chromosome conformation capture combined with sequencing (4C-seq), GRO-seq and ChIP-seq indicated that the eRNA-expressing super-enhance regions were located at downstream of the MYC gene in KSHV-infected PELs. Treatment of an epigenetic drug to block enhancer function or shRNA-mediated depletion of the eRNA expression significantly reduced MYC mRNA expression in KSHV-infected PELs. Finally, while cellular IRF4 acted upon the eRNAs and super-enhancers for MYC expression during latency, the KSHV viral IRF4 repressed cellular IRF4 expression upon reactivation, decreasing MYC expression and thereby, facilitating lytic replication. Taken together, these data suggest that KSHV acts as an epigenetic driver that modifies host epigenomic status by effectively regulating enhancer function upon reactivation.

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Integrated analyses reveal CHD4 mediating establishment and maintenance of latent KSHV chromatin [Capture Hi-C]

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