protease inhibitors

In biology and biochemistry, protease inhibitors are molecules that inhibit the function of proteases. Many naturally occurring protease inhibitors are proteins. In medicine, protease inhibitor is often used interchangeably with alpha 1-antitrypsin (A1AT, which is abbreviated PI for this reason). A1AT is indeed the protease inhibitor most often involved in disease, namely in alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency.