THERAPEUTIC PEPTIDES HAVING A MOTIF THAT BINDS SPECIFICALLY TO NON-ACETYLATED H3 AND H4 HISTONES FOR CANCER THERAPY

摘要

The present invention describes a composition of matter comprising a conservedstructural motif that allows the targeting and binding of a chromatin bindingprotein to non-acetylated histone H3 and H4 and prevents their acetylation.This invention is responsible for the anti-carcinogenic property of achromatin binding peptide isolated from soybean seed. This structural motif isfound in a highly conserved manner in other chromatin-binding proteins fromdifferent species. Modifications to this structural motif such as fusions toother proteins with functional motifs and amino acid substitutions havepotential therapeutic applications and can be developed as an in vivo genesilencing technology for biological and medical research. In particular,active fragments of the lunasin peptide and active analogs of the lunasinpeptide are useful in this invention. Pharmaceutical compositions useful inretarding or stopping or reducing various types of cancers are described.