Physiological processes such as blood clotting, inflammation and immunity are essential for our wellbeing. While these process are very diverse in comparison to each other, they are actually all run by the same class of enzyme: Serine Proteases. Serine Proteases need to be controlled to prevent collateral damage due to excessive activity. Failure to do so can lead to a variety of inflammatory diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, pulmonary emphysema, colitis, arthritis and sepsis, as well as complement-driven disorders.
Serine protease inhibitors (SERPINs) are a superfamily of inhibitors, which act as molecular mousetraps. In physiology, SERPINs only interact with serine proteases after activation. This enables physiological protease activity, but limits it to prevent pathology. The inhibitory profile of SERPINs can be altered by changing their sequence in the reactive center loop (bait sequence), which has massive therapeutic potential.