protease

[ proh-tee-eys, -eyz ]

nounBiochemistry.

any of a group of enzymes that catalyze the hydrolytic degradation of proteins or polypeptides to smaller amino acid polymers.

Origin of protease

First recorded in 1900–05; prote(in) + -ase

Words Nearby protease

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use protease in a sentence

Pfizer says its studies similarly showed that the virus is not developing resistance to the protease inhibitor drug.
Here’s What Scientists Know About Paxlovid Rebound | Alice Park | May 26, 2022 | Time
Similar protease enzymes exist in other types of coronavirus.
A pill for covid | Antonio Regalado | February 23, 2022 | MIT Technology Review
It could—the protease could conceivably evolve enough to dodge the drug.
How Pfizer made an effective anti-covid pill | Antonio Regalado | February 4, 2022 | MIT Technology Review
In the first experiment, researchers found that the drug’s key ingredient, nirmatrelvir, was equally successful at blocking protease from Omicron and the original virus strain.
COVID antiviral pills work against Omicron—when people can get them | Kate Baggaley | January 28, 2022 | Popular-Science
Paxlovid blocks a coronavirus protease, an enzyme the virus needs to make copies of itself.
Pfizer antiviral pill reduced risk of covid hospitalization and death by 89 percent in high-risk people, company study shows | Carolyn Y. Johnson | November 5, 2021 | Washington Post

For HIV, though, real therapy began only 18 years ago with the introduction of a class of drugs, the protease inhibitors.
Let’s Not Rush to Call the HIV Baby Findings a ‘Cure’ | Kent Sepkowitz | March 5, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
The best-known example of this type of enzymes is the protease of yeast; but similar ones may be found in germinating seeds.
The Chemistry of Plant Life | Roscoe Wilfred Thatcher

British Dictionary definitions for protease

protease

/ (ˈprəʊtɪˌeɪs) /

noun

any enzyme involved in proteolysis

Origin of protease

C20: from protein + -ase

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for protease

protease

[ prō′tē-ās′ ]

Any of various enzymes that bring about the breakdown of proteins into peptides or amino acids by hydrolysis. Pepsin is an example of a protease.

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