What is pepstatin?

Answer 1

Pepstatin A is an inhibitor of acid proteases (aspartyl peptidases). It forms a 1:1 complex with proteases such as pepsin, renin, cathepsin D, bovine chymosin, and protease B (Aspergillus niger). The inhibitor is highly selective and does not inhibit thiol proteases, neutral proteases or serine proteases. Solublized Beta-secretase and retroviral protease are also inhibited by Pepstatin A. It has been used to characterize proteases from several sources. Pepstatin A is thought to inhibit by a collected-substrate inhibition mechanism.