TLCK is a trypsin-like serine protease inhibitor which can block lipopolysaccharide (LPS)- or cytokine-induced activation of nuclear factor kappa B (NF- kappa B), which, in turn blocks the induction of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) transcription. TLCK blocks activation of pp70s6k by all mitogens and prevents apoptosis in cell lines by inhibiting caspase processing. TLCK has been used in chymotrypsin purification to prevent binding of trypsins to the affinity support, as a protease inhibitor in tissue and cell homogenization and as a trypsin inhibitor to determine specific protease activity levels.
