Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus mitochondrial K7 protein targets a cellular calcium-modulating cyclophilin ligand to modulate intracellular calcium concentration and inhibit apoptosis

On viral infection, infected cells can become the target of host immune responses or can go through a programmed cell death process, called apoptosis, as a defense mechanism to limit the ability of the virus to replicate. To prevent this, viruses have evolved elaborate mechanisms to subvert the apoptotic process. Here, we report the identification of a novel antiapoptotic K7 protein of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) which expresses during lytic replication. The KSHV K7 gene encodes a small mitochondrial membrane protein, and its expression efficiently inhibits apoptosis induced by a variety of apoptogenic agents. The yeast two-hybrid screen has demonstrated that K7 targets cellular calcium-modulating cyclophilin ligand (CAML), a protein that regulates the intracellular Ca²⁺ concentration. Similar to CAML, K7 expression significantly enhances the kinetics and amplitudes of the increase in intracellular Ca²⁺ concentration on apoptotic stimulus. Mutational analysis showed that K7 interaction with CAML is required for its function in the inhibition of apoptosis. This indicates that K7 targets cellular CAML to increase the cytosolic Ca²⁺ response, which consequently protects cells from mitochondrial damage and apoptosis. This is a novel viral antiapoptosis strategy where the KSHV mitochondrial K7 protein targets a cellular Ca²⁺-modulating protein to confer resistance to apoptosis, which allows completion of the viral lytic replication and, eventually, maintenance of persistent infection in infected host.