Investigation of the Effects of Primary Structure Modifications within the RRE Motif on the Conformation of Synthetic Bovine Herpesvirus 1‐Encoded UL49.5 Protein Fragments

Herpesviruses are the most prevalent viruses that infect the human and animal body. They can escape a host immune response in numerous ways. One way is to block the TAP complex so that viral peptides, originating from proteasomal degradation, cannot be transported to the endoplasmic reticulum. As a result, a reduced number of MHC class I molecules appear on the surface of infected cells and, thus, the immune system is not efficiently activated. BoHV‐1‐encoded UL49.5 protein is one such TAP transporter inhibitor. This protein binds to TAP in such a way that its N‐terminal fragment interacts with the loops of the TAP complex, and the C‐terminus stimulates proteasomal degradation of TAP. Previous studies have indicated certain amino acid residues, especially the RRE(9–11) motif, within the helical structure of the UL49.5 N‐terminal fragment, as being crucial to the protein's activity. In this work, we investigated the effects of modifications within the RRE region on the spatial structure of the UL49.5 N‐terminal fragment. The introduced RRE(9–11) variations were designed to abolish or stabilize the structure of the α‐helix and, consequently, to increase or decrease protein activity compared to the wild type. The terminal structure of the peptides was established using circular dichroism (CD), 2D nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and molecular dynamics (MD) in membrane‐mimetic or membrane‐model environments. Our structural results show that in the RRE(9–11)AAA and E11G peptides the helical structure has been stabilized, whereas for the RRE(9–11)GGG peptide, as expected, the helix structure has partially unfolded compared to the native structure. These RRE modifications, in the context of the entire UL49.5 proteins, slightly altered their biological activity in human cells.