A New Platform for Profiling Active Proteases With Single-Molecule Sensitivity

Proteases, such as urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) and prostate specific antigen (PSA), have been used extensively as biomarkers for cancer. A necessary improvement in diagnostics with proteomics is to use the activity levels of proteases as a signal, as opposed to the total protease content. This will provide a better functional insight into the propagation of cancer, and ultimately could allow us to diagnose cancer at earlier stages. Here, we propose a new platform to capture and measure activity of specific proteases in patient samples, with single-molecule sensitivity.