Proteases, such as trypsin, have emerged as critical biomarkers, especially when their activity is detected outside their usual biological context. The early detection of diseases through biomarker identification in blood samples can improve patient outcomes.

The autodigestion hypothesis suggests that proteases circulating in the bloodstream cleave essential proteins, disrupting their normal function and contributing to diseases, like pancreatic cancer.

Traditional protease detection techniques are complex, costly, and time-consuming, necessitating the processing of samples in equipped laboratories.

Lateral flow assays (LFAs) have emerged as an affordable, effective, and accessible diagnostic tool at the point of care; however, this technology has not yet been developed for protease activity detection.