Streptokinase-A Drug for Thrombolytic Therapy: A Patent Review

Accumulation of fibrin in blood vessels significantly increases thrombosis, leading to myocardial infraction and other cardiovascular diseases. Microbial enzymes are one option for curing this pathological condition. Fibrinolytic enzymes such as urokinase (UK), tissue type plasminogen activator (t-PA) and streptokinase (SK) attracted much attention for thrombolytic therapy. Among them SK is preferable in low-resource settings because it is cost-effective. Therefore, the purpose of this review is to summarize recent patents related to the occurrence, mechanism of action, physico-chemical properties, cloning and expression, production, structure, immunogenicity, chemical modification, in vivo application and clinical trials of SK. This patent review considers the properties and characteristics of SK that make it a preferred agent for thrombolytic therapy.