"Protease activity" refers to the ability of a specific enzyme called protease to break down or cleave proteins into smaller fragments or individual amino acids. Full definition
University of Washington School of Medicine Therapeutic inhibition of aberrant protease activity in inherited neutropenias (bwfund.org)
In the first of a series of experiments, the investigators separately incubated each of 120,000 different small molecules with the protease - containing piece of C. difficile's primary toxin, Toxin B. Then, they added a toxin - activating factor and, using a test they'd devised in which protease activity was signaled by fluorescence, looked for drugs that shut down that activity. (sciencedaily.com)
A few years ago, co-author Aimee Shen, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar in Bogyo's lab who is now an assistant professor at the University of Vermont, found that C. difficile's main toxins — secreted proteins known as Toxin A and Toxin B — contain nearly identical sections with protease activity. (sciencedaily.com)