A landscape of the health benefits of different natural protease inhibitors

Abstract

Protease inhibitors are important since the deregulation of proteolytic activities is tightly linked to different pathological conditions including severe inflammatory disorders and cancer. There are around 85 families of protease inhibitors according to the MEROPS database. In this article we have reviewed the medicinal applications of different types of protease inhibitors, in particular the serine protease inhibitors (exemplified as Kunitz type and Bowman-Birk type inhibitors) which are the most extensively studied. Although the main protease inhibitors cited here are of plant and animal origin, antibody and engineered protease inhibitors are also discussed, albeit lesser extensively. By binding to serine proteases or other targets, many protease inhibitors display a vast range of properties that are beneficial for humans. These include anti-fungal, anti-apoptotic, anti-inflammatory, anti-metastatic, anti-proliferative, and anti-HIV activities. The multipotency of such inhibitors has made them strong candidates for treating diseases and disorders. The current limitation mainly lies on whether these properties could be transferred from bench-top level to clinical trials and eventually employed as substitutes for existing drugs.