KSHV latent episomes bind histone H2A-H2B with latent protein LANA!!

This is the most impressive paper I've seen in months:
The Nucleosomal Surface as a Docking Station for Kaposi's Sarcoma Herpesvirus LANA
Andrew J. Barbera, et al., Science 10 February 2006: Vol. 311. no. 5762, pp. 856 - 861
NCBI link | Science website

For those who don't know, this virus, Kaposi’s sarcoma–associated herpesvirus (KSHV), has a latent phase where it's genes from a little circle called an episome, that sticks to the host chromosome, replicating when ever the host does, and also hides from the immune system.

So this docking is achieved by using the KSHV Latency Associated Nuclear Antigen (LANA) latent protein which sticks the origin part of KSHV episomes to the host histone H2A and H2B. They even found that the N-terminal of LANA fits H2A-H2B dimers very well, either the shape or electric charges. Cool!

I wonder if the EBV homologue: EBNA-1 does the samething in the same way. Also, if there are similar proteins in the latency of vericella-zoster virus (chicken pox, and shingles), then maybe we can target these proteins and kill off those latency viral genomes. As latency is one of the main reasons we have problems with herpesvirus related diseases (we already have lytic replication inhibitor drugs such as acyclovir), maybe this would be our chance to kick herpesviruses out of our bodies!

(It's so nice to have something scientific to be excited about...)