SARS-CoV-2 protein encoded by ORF8 contains a histone mimic that disrupts chromatin regulation

Abstract SARS-CoV-2 emerged in China at the end of 2019 and caused the global pandemic of COVID-19, a disease with high morbidity and mortality. While our understanding of this novel virus is rapidly increasing, gaps remain in our understanding of how SARS-CoV-2 can effectively suppress host cell antiviral responses. Recent work on other viruses has demonstrated a novel mechanism through which viral proteins can mimic critical regions of human histone proteins. Histone proteins are responsible for governing genome accessibility and their precise regulation is critical for a cell’s ability to control transcription and respond to viral threats. Here, we show that the protein encoded by ORF8 (Orf8) in SARS-CoV-2 functions as a histone mimic of two critical histone 3 sites containing an ARKS motif. Orf8 expression in cells disrupts multiple critical histone post-translational modifications (PTMs) while Orf8 lacking this histone mimic motif does not. Orf8 binds to numerous histone-associated proteins and to DNA, and is itself acetylated within the histone mimic site. Importantly, SARS-CoV-2 infection of multiple susceptible cell types causes the same global changes of histone post-translational modifications that are disrupted by Orf8 expression; these include induced pluripotent stem cell-derived alveolar type 2 cells (iAT2) and cardiomyocytes (iCM) and postmortem patient lung tissue. These findings demonstrate a novel function for the poorly understood SARS-CoV-2 ORF8 encoded protein and a mechanism through which SARS-CoV-2 disrupts host cell epigenetic regulation. Notably, this work provides a potential mechanism for emerging findings from human patients indicating that ORF8 deletion results in less severe illness and describes a potentially druggable pathway that may contribute to the virulence of SARS-CoV-2.