Role of Protease in Protein Digestion

• Proteases, sometimes referred to as proteolytic enzymes or peptidases, cleave protein into peptides and amino acids by adding water. Proteases are highly specialized so as to cleave the wide range of peptide bonds and not cleave each other.
  
  

Protease-Related Pathology

• Protease deficiency, because of mutation for example, has been implicated in several pathologies such as iron deficiency. Protease supplementation to treat protease deficiency has demonstrated a mixed benefit.
  
  

Proteolytic Use in Medicine

• Tissue plasminogen activator has been used to break down blood clots to treat ischymic stroke. Because of the specialized nature of each protease, various proteases have been used in wound debridement, the removal of dead wound tissue to assist healing, with minimal side effects to healthy tissue.
  
  

Anti-Inflammatory Use in Medicine

• Proteases have also been used for their anti-inflammatory effect such as in treatment of osteoarthritis with a benefit comparable to that of other anti-inflammatory drugs.
  
  

HIV Treatment

• Protease inhibitors prevent HIV replication by binding to, thus inhibiting, HIV-1 protease, which HIV uses to cleave proteins for virion assembly. Researchers are also investigating the use of protease inhibitors to treat hepatitis C, malaria and cancer.