Cold-Adapted Proteases as an Emerging Class of Therapeutics

Proteases have been used in medicine for several decades and are an established and well tolerated class of therapeutic agent. These proteases were sourced from mammals or bacteria that exist or have adapted to moderate temperatures (mesophilic organisms); however, proteases derived from organisms from cold environments—cold-adapted or psychrophilic proteases—generally have high specific activity, low substrate affinity, and high catalytic rates at low and moderate temperatures. Made possible by greater flexibility, psychrophilic enzymes interact with and transform the substrate at lower energy costs. Cold-adapted proteases have been used in a wide range of applications, including industrial functions, textiles, cleaning/hygiene products, molecular biology, environmental bioremediations, consumer food products, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical production. In addition to these applications, they have also shown promise as therapeutic modalities for cosmeceutical applications (by reducing glabellar [frown] lines) and a number of disease conditions, including bacterial infections (by disrupting biofilms to prevent bacterial infection), topical wound management (when used as a debridement agent to remove necrotic tissue and fibrin clots), oral/dental health management (by removing plaque and preventing periodontal disease), and in viral infections (by reducing the infectivity of viruses, such as human rhinovirus 16 and herpes simplex virus). Psychrophilic proteases with greater activity and stability (than the original organism-derived variant) have been developed; this coupled with available manufacturing recombinant production techniques suggests that cold-adapted proteases have a promising future as a distinct therapeutic class with diverse clinical applications.