Protease Inhibitor (biology) - Classification

Classification

Protease inhibitors may be classified either by the type of protease they inhibit, or by their mechanism of action. In 2004 Rawlings and colleagues introduced a classification of protease inhibitors based on similarities detectable at the level of amino acid sequence. This classification initially identified 48 families of inhibitors that could be grouped into 26 related superfamily (or clans) by their structure. According to the MEROPS database there are now 85 families of inhibitors. These families are named with an I followed by a number, for example, I14 contains hirudin-like inhibitors.